Edna St Vincent Millay (1930)

1.      Read the following sonnet by Edna St Vincent Millay (1930)

I dreamed I moved among the Elysian fields,

In converse with sweet women long since dead;

And out of blossoms which that meadow yields

I wove a garland for your living head.

Danae, that was the vessel for a day

Of golden Jove, I saw, and at her side,

Whom Jove the Bull desired and bore away,

Europa stood, and the Swan’s featherless bride.

All these were mortal women, yet all these

Above the ground had had a god for guest;

Freely I walked beside them and at ease,

Addressing them, by them again addressed,

And marvelled nothing, for remembering you,

Wherefore I was among them well I knew. (Millay, 1956: 645)

2.     Assuming that the speaker of the poem is a woman addressing her male lover, try to work out what he is saying about him (one of the clues is that in the final couplet she seems to compare him to Jove).

Answer: The last four lines (‘wherefore . . .I knew’) add a subtle touch of ambiguity, which not only underlines the speaker’s affiliation with the women she mentions, but also excludes the man from their special bond. The speaker’s admission that ‘freely I walked beside them and at ease’ provides a sharp contrast to the turbulent relationship with the man and the constant antagonism between the two partners.  The thematic transparency of the sequence is not a simple matter. Millay cleverly inserts elements that highlight the complexity of her project, a project which is as much concerned with the redefinition of female power and creativity as it is with rewriting the tradition of love poetry And the

first step towards this redefinition of power lies in the speaker’s willing ness to consider alternative forms of psychological support, and thus disrupt the traditional dominance of the heterosexual couple in love sonnets. A female speaker who constantly questions the specifics of her relationship, resists popular stereotypes of eternal love and loyalty and sees other women as potential advisors, rather than competitors.

3.      Identify as many cases of illusion as you can by:

(a)   Circling all the word and phrases (including names) which you think may be allusions;

Answer:

Ø  I moved among the Elysian field

Ø  sweet women long since dead

Ø  living head

Ø  for a day

Ø  Europa stood

Ø  Freely I walked beside them and at ease

Ø  Addressing them, by them again addressed

(b)   Finding out what they are allusions to by looking them up in appropriate sources (see below or see unit 2: using information sources).

Answer: The presence of these dead women suggests a continuity across time, and the speaker’s assertion that she walked beside them ‘freely’ and ‘at ease’ reinforces the feeling of solidarity. Millay seems to be equally interested in surveying the field of women’s inscription in literature, as well as in the lives of the women she deploys in her work. Her repeated references to these figures are meant to alert the reader to Millay’s revisionary intention – the creation of an original female persona whose attitude towards sexuality sees the vindication of other women’s experiences as a necessary step for the eradication of silence and prejudice.

4.      Having done 3, you should now have discovered what the ‘Elysian fields’ are, and have found out about Jove’s relationships with three ‘mortal woman’. Using this information, try answering question 2 again. Is your answer any different from what you gave earlier?

Answer:  Edna St. Vincent Millay’s in “I Dreamed I Moved among the Elysian Fields.” For instance, the scenarios in which a woman is tortured by a man who she perceives as a God. Moreover, the authors use Greek mythology–especially mythological folklore involving male deities– to discuss their positions.  Aside from using Greek mythology simply to illustrate their points aesthetically, she makes such references to display her intellectual competence. After all, each poem discusses the power that a man has over a woman in intimate relationships; perhaps showing intellectual competence is a way for each woman to reclaim a sense of dignity. Millay writes: “And out of blossoms of that meadow yield/I wove a garland for your living head” (lines 3-4). Thus, even as she walks the beautiful fields of heaven, she wants to do something special for her loved one. Essentially, the author expresses a yearning and desire for a man that they are not with. In Millay’s work, she mentions various women in Greek mythology who have been left, abandoned, or wronged by men they loved–men that were perceived as God. Her works reads: “Danai, that was the vessel for a day/Of golden Jove, I saw, and at her side/Whom Jove the Bull desired and bore away/Europa stood and the swan’s fearless bride” (lines 5-8).

5.      Is the poem making a compliment to the man or is it doing something else? How do the allusions support your answer?

Answer: Millay concludes with “And marvelled nothing for remembering you/wherefore I was among them, well I knew” (lines 13-14). Millay’s ending truly captures how much she identifies with the woman of the Greek mythological world; she says that she belongs in the same afterlife as them because they have experienced identical situations on Earth.  Millay incorporate the knowledge of Greek mythology in order to create their masterpieces and express the experience of feeling powerless over a man perceived as a God.