Pity Me Not Because The Light Of Day Analysis

Pity me not because the light of day
At close of day no longer walks the sky;
Pity me not for beauties passed away
From field and thicket as the the year goes by;
Pity me not the waning of the moon,
Nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea,
Nor that a man's desire is hushed so soon,
And you no longer look with love on me.
This have I known always: Love is no more
Than the wide blossom which the wind assails,
Than the great tide that treads the shifting shore,
Strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales:
Pity me that the heart is slow to learn
What the swift mind beholds at ever turn.

.: :.

In sonnet 29, Millay shows us that she knows that, nature dies –that love dies. She knows that there are some things that can’t be stopped in nature and we cannot stop it no matter how hard we try; she tries to link the actions of nature to the love of human beings.
Millay begins by stating that she knows that the sun goes down – this is natural, ‘the light of day at close of day no longer walks the sky’. This is trying to convey that, we know that the light of day will fade and it is not saddening for us anymore; It is natural for the sun to fade and darkness to set in. This can be attributed to the love that many people know – It may be bright and beautiful, but at some point, sooner or later, love fades or dies. To emphasise the regularity of the occurrence of fading light, Millay uses the verb ‘walks’, this shows us the regular and definite happening of this – it is in some way unavoidable.
She then carries on the idea of nature dying and becoming less and less beautiful, ‘beauties passed away from field and thicket’; this shows us that the magic and beauty of nature soon dies as ‘the year goes by’ (winter sets in – death is inevitable and we’ve become used to it). Millay’s use of nature to portray what we also seem to find inevitable in love, is a complex and effective way for us to truly grasp the idea of the loss or the fading of love itself.
Millay again refers to nature as fading, dying, vanishing. She uses the ‘waning of the moon’ and the ‘ebbing tide’ to show this. These images of nature dissipating paints pictures in our minds, we are more intrigued now by the fact that these saddening things are so accepted, so normal. We now think is the death and waning of love sad? Or is it just expected to happen sooner or later?
However, Millay soon introduces direct references to love itself into the poem, ‘a man’s desire is hushed so soon’. Millay has given us the context in which to read this line with. We see that she believes love should fade slowly, yet in this sentence she finds that love (or at least her love) was diminished too early – the sun had set too soon. The fact that their love was ‘hushed’ conveys an image of a flame extinguishing or something falling to sleep – Their love had burned out too quickly.
She then takes a different tone in the third quatrain. The tone is much more angry, rather than sad as it had been in the past quatrains. She begins to state what she thinks about love and she uses metaphors to do with nature to describe her feeling towards what happens to love. She uses the metaphor of a ‘wide blossom’ to show her feelings towards love. She finds love attractive, pure and loving; something delicate and cherished – something that allows hope and happiness to be felt like the blossom. But on the other hand, she shows what she thinks happens to love, ‘the wide blossom which the wind assails’. She knows that love, however glorious and beautiful, is going to be tested. If the blossom is not attached properly, does not have a strong bond with the flower, it will be blown away and will crash to the ground. This tries to show that if love is not true and strong. If the love connection is not bonded greatly enough, the love will fall apart. It will separate and the people will be pulled apart by this great assailing wind; or in the case of love – harsh circumstances. Millay also tries to convey that not all love is great, some love is short lived, it is fleeting and is quickly diminished, just like the blossoms that have brought beauty to the tree, only to be blown away when the wind attacks it.
Millay then uses a different metaphor of nature to again, convey her feelings towards love. Millay describes love as a ‘great tide’, tides are seen as powerful and great but it can also be seen as destructive and angry. This metaphor shows that love can be seen as this beautiful tide, powerful and almighty. But love can also hurt people and tear them down because, if the wave – in this case love, becomes angered, it will hurt the people in and around it. She then shows this tide to be treading ‘the shifting shore’. The fact that the word ‘treads’ was used is in direct contrast of the ‘walk’ used in the first line of the poem. We find that the poem is angrier and that love has become dangerous and enraged. The tide treads ‘the shifting shore’, the shifting shore could be a representation of the different circumstances love is put in. It also conveys that love is not stable, it is always moving and changing for good and for bad.
The last sentence before the Volta is a striking one. She carries on the metaphor of the ‘great tide’, but this time love is represented as a shipwreck. Millay tries to show the readers that when love dies, sometimes it ends in destruction and disaster. ‘strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales’, this shows that love has been through a storm (the ‘gales’) and the gales represent the attacks on love by circumstance and other factors which affect the outcome of a love. Love, in this case, has been ripped apart like a ship wreck, yet at the same time gathered up by the storm. This line suggests violence and tension in the love, like a ship being attacked by a storm. It also shows that when love is broken down, all of the pain and broken bits are shoved together after being ripped apart therefore, you can feel the pain after the love is gone because, the pain has gathered like a storm in your heart.

| Posted on 2010-02-09 | by a guest

.: Pity me not :.

So beautifully is said, there are many things I suffer for which you may have sorrow, but spare me the worst one, and that is although I am smart and can be glib and answer wisely, my heart is smarter and knows the truth and will suffer more and more, because it cannot, nor will not listen to my all-too-deceptive mind. It knows the truth. Grief takes a long time and can't be glibly talked away.

| Posted on 2007-05-15 | by a guest

.: Poem by Edna St Vincent M :.

I love this poem because no matter what changes, and many things do, (tide, moon, sun goes down, wind blows etc.) She realizes "the heart is slow to learn
What the swift mind beholds at ever turn" The heart does not want to think, about dangers. The heart is so trusting and becuase of that trust, gets hurt. The heart is nieve. The mind knows better, the mind thinks about motives, and feelings and is swift.

| Posted on 2007-03-12 | by a guest