Adolf Hitler and Germany during World War 2

Award-winning poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, is known for her wonderfully composed poems. She was a poet, as well as was a playwright, actress, and a women's activist. Living in a time where numerous progressions were being made to society, Edna could utilize her verse to express her sentiments about specific subjects.Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in 1892, in Rockland Maine. She was the daughter of Cora Buzzelle Millay and Henry Tolman Millay (Gale78). Edna had two younger sisters named, Norma and Kathleen. When he parents got divorced all three daughters stayed with Cora (Famouspeople).

Edna was very inspired by her mother. She became an independent child who explored her interest in theater, music, and both reading and writing of literature (Gale79). Edna also studied piano and theater and spoke six languages. Edna originally wished to pursue a concert pianist career, but her music instructor discourages her, pointing out her small hands. She pursued writing instead(Televisionnetwork). When Edna was a child, her mother withdrew her from school in the eighth grade, due to a dispute with a teacher. She studied at home and skipped ninth grade completely. During high school, Edna both contributed to and edited the school newspaper (Bailey). By the time Edna was a teenager, she had already published poetry in the noted Children's Magazine. Years later Edna graduated from Camden High School in 1909. By the age of nineteen, Edna wrote what is considered her first major poem, “Renascence”. The work was enthusiastically received, and in part earned Edna a scholarship to Vassar College (Gale79). Edna graduated from Vassar College in 1917 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.   After graduation, Edna moved to Borough New York. Borough is a noted heaven for people of artistic abilities as well as a center for issues for women's rights.

Edna buried herself with poetry and acting after she moved to Borough. She developed a very fast pace life, keeping a busy social life, and becoming romantically involved with several notable men. In the early 1920’s, this lifestyle caught up with Edna, and she became very ill and exhausted. Edna sailed to Europe seeking better climates, where she stayed for two years(Gale79).   In 1923 Millay moved back to New York where she met businessman Eugen Boissevain at a party. Later that year Edna and Eugen got married. Eugen was the poet’s ideological and spiritual partner, as he respected her artistic pursuits and her feminist concerns. In addition to these advances in her personal life, Edna’s career was on the rise. Edna won the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 and was granted an honorary degree from Tufts University in 1925. Her increase public profile gave Edna a platform to voice her social conscience, and she regularly engaged in protest. Edna’s writings in the late 1920s and 1930s reflected her political views. Most of her work during this time was speaking out against the activities of Adolf Hitler and Germany during World War 2 (Gale79).   In 1936 Edna was in a car accident which left her in precarious shape. She still continued her writing career.

A few years later Edna was having nervous breakdowns. Her recovery was very slow due to many personal setbacks, the worst being the death of her husband in 1945. Although her physical power was limited Edna continued to write. Edna was in the middle of compiling poems when she was struck by a fatal heart attack. She died at her home in Austerlitz, New York, on October 19, 1950 (Gale79). Edna wrote about her daily life in her poems. Her poems were about the things she cared about the most. She also liked to address her political views in her poems. Edna lived in a time where things were constantly changing , so there were many things to write about. She lived in a time during war where the climate was bad. A major theme in her poems are nature and how much she loved nature itself. The biggest theme in her poems talk about love. Edna's interest in heterosexual relationships is a major theme in her poetry, whether it was between husband and wife, or between disaffected lovers. Another major theme is the integrity of the individual, which Edna valued highly for herself as well as others. The fight with death, the fight with love, and the duel of mind pitted against heart were all also major themes in her poems(Patton).Edna wrote a poem about her mom called The Courage That My Mother Had. The poem is about the courage that her mom had in her eyes.

Throughout the poem Edna talks about the things her mother left her ,but she wishes she had more than just things. Her mother exited her little girl a gold clasp, or a luxurious stick commonly worn on the garments, which is a decent token yet not what the lady truly wishes she has. She wears the ornament and fortunes it more than whatever else she possesses, yet she asserts she would surrender everything to have only an ounce of her mom's valor, which her mom has taken to the grave with her. Much of the poem’s tension arises from two contrasting elements. The vividness with the poet remembers her mother, and awareness of her death that is present from the beginning of the poem until the end. The mother is described in the past tense, implying that she is dead. However, some of the details in the poem suggest that she is still alive. For example, “is with her still” implying she is still alive at least to Edna. The juxtaposition for real death and imagined death life process a poignant scene of loss which grows over the courage of the poems three stanzas. The sense of loss is all greater because the death of the mother is only hinted at in the first two stanzas. She is “granite in a granite hill”. She “left behind” a brooch. It is not until the final stanza, when the poet mentions “the thing she took into the grave”, the death is confronted directly(Gale81).Edna was known for many things outside of poems. She was a playwright, women’s activist, and many more things. She succeeded in her plays she wrote, and was well known in politics. However, Edna is best known for her well composed poems.

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