Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay, a poet and playwrite, was best known for her lyrical poetry. She wrote many poems, on topics such as love, fidelity, erotic desire, and feminist issues. The part of Millay that wasn’t highly publicized is that she addressed herself as a bisexual and had many affairs with woman before her marriage. It is not said if she continued sexual involments with women after her marriage (though it is quite possible), nor it is not said which of her poems are written about women rather than men.

Edna St. Vincent Millay grew up in a different sort of family. Born February 22, 1892 in Rockland, Maine, and the oldest of three daughters of Henry Tolman Millay and Cora Lounella (Buzelle) Millay. When Edna was around the age eight her mother divorced her father. After the divorce her mother worked as a nurse to support the family. Her mother encouraged Edna and her sisters to study music and literature and urged them to be independent and ambitious.

Edna’s first published poem "Forest Trees." Written when she was fourteen, appeared in St. Nicholas Magazine (October 1906). With in the next four years, St. Nicholas published five more of her poems one of which, "The Land of Romance" received a gold badge of the St. Nicholas League and later was reprinted in Current Literature (April 1907). In 1912 "Renascence" one of Millays poems was anthologized in The Lyric Year and met with critical acclaim.

When Millay’s poems were published she gained literary recognition and earned a scholarship to Vassar. At Vassar she continued to write poetry and became involved in the theater. In 1922 one of her plays The Harp Weaver was awarded the Palitzer Prize. Millay also published a book of poems in 1922 called "A Few Figs from Thistles" in this volume, she described female sexuality in a way that gained her much attention, as she put fourth the idea that a women has every right to sexual pleasure and no obligation to fidelity.

Following her successes in the 1920’s and early 1930’s, Millay’s poetry gradually suffered a critical and popular decline. Unfortunately, her real poetic achievements were overshadowed by her image as the free (but "naughty") woman of the 1920’s. During the last two decades of her life, millay was almost ignored critically, although her Collected Sonnets appeared in 1941. Since the late 1960’s, however, there has been a renewed interest in Millay’s works.