Exploring the Text

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  1. What is the effect of the poem’s rhyme? Do you think it contradicts the poem’s meaning or supports it? Explain your answer.

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What is the effect of the poem’s rhyme? Do you think it contradicts the poem’s meaning or supports it? Explain your answer.
  2. The phrase “burn the candle at both ends” used to be a reference to waste: candles were expensive and valuable—not to be used carelessly. It has since come to refer to a life lived frantically, in which one enjoys oneself late into the night only to begin again the next morning. How do both of these meanings work in this short poem?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - The phrase “burn the candle at both ends” used to be a reference to waste: candles were expensive and valuable—not to be used carelessly. It has since come to refer to a life lived frantically, in which one enjoys oneself late into the night only to begin again the next morning. How do both of these meanings work in this short poem?
  3. Why do you think Edna St. Vincent Millay used “ah” to address her foes and “oh” to address her friends?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Why do you think Edna St. Vincent Millay used “ah” to address her foes and “oh” to address her friends?
  4. Millay wrote the following poem, called “Second Fig”:

    Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:

    Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand.

    What does it have in common with “First Fig”? Why do you think she called it “Second Fig”? What connections do you make with figs? Why do you think Millay used fig twice in her titles?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Millay wrote the following poem, called “Second Fig”:Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand.What does it have in common with “First Fig”? Why do you think she called it “Second Fig”? What connections do you make with figs? Why do you think Millay used fig twice in her titles?
  5. Critic Carl Van Doren wrote that since the ancient Greek poet Sappho few women had “written as outspokenly as Millay.” Why might this poem have been considered outspoken? Could “Second Fig,” found in question 4, also be considered outspoken? How do you think these poems hold up to that characterization today?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Critic Carl Van Doren wrote that since the ancient Greek poet Sappho few women had “written as outspokenly as Millay.” Why might this poem have been considered outspoken? Could “Second Fig,” found in question 4, also be considered outspoken? How do you think these poems hold up to that characterization today?