A Few Figs from Thistles by Edna St. Vincent Millay
"A Few Figs from Thistles" is a collection of poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay that marks a departure from the serious tone of her earlier work. Comprising four sonnets and nineteen brief lyrics, the collection showcases Millay's vibrant and audacious persona, which boldly critiques conventional values and societal expectations. Through her verses, Millay humorously addresses themes such as guilt, love, and the desire for independence, often with a playful irreverence toward traditional morals. For instance, in "The Penitent," she examines guilt and concludes that if her sorrow lacks authenticity, she should embrace joy instead. Millay's exploration of duality is notable, as she reflects on her upbringing by parents with conflicting natures, leading her to embody a mix of seemingly opposing traits. Central to her work is the idea of seizing pleasure and autonomy, particularly during youth, which she presents as essential before the responsibilities of adulthood take hold. Overall, the collection reveals Millay's deep engagement with personal freedom and the complexities of human emotion, inviting readers to consider the balance between duty and desire.
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A Few Figs from Thistles by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1920
Type of work: Poetry
The Work
This slim volume of four sonnets and nineteen other brief lyrics overturned the tone of high seriousness in Millay’s early poem “Renascence” and delighted a broader range of readers. The poet’s new, plucky persona pricks the pretensions of stodgy moralists by ridiculing domesticity, remorse, and what she calls “pious planning.”
In “The Penitent” she reconsiders the feeling of guilt brought on by a little sin and concludes that, if her sorrow is not genuine, she “might as well be glad!” In “The Merry Maid” she finds compensation for a broken heart in being freed from care. She hungers for a lover “wanton, light and false” but gives fair warning that she would leave him immediately except that she admires his beauty. “Oh, think not I am faithful to a vow!” she declares. “Faithless am I save to love’s self alone.”
There is much more than impudence in Millay’s few figs. She justifies her wantonness as the psychological result of best wishes bestowed upon her by parents with contradictory personalities. “What should I be but a prophet and a liar,” she asks, “Whose mother was a leprechaun, whose father was a friar?” Hers would be of no common sort but a dual personality, “a harlot and a nun” combined into one. She strikes a note heard in later works as well. “What should I be but just what I am?” Here, in modern dress, reappears the high Romantic insistence on the autonomy of the individual following his or her own intuition.
Millay works a twist on the ancient poetical theme carpe diem. In her treatment, a woman—-be she a merry maid, a penitent, a singing-woman, a philosopher, or the poet’s own persona—-must have the freedom and drive to seize pleasure during youth, before dreary duty and responsibility can tame her energy. Petulantly refusing to let “Sleep’s dull knife” cut her day in half, she commands Time only to take away from the other end of her life, leaving youth unhampered.
Bibliography
Brittin, Norman A. Edna St. Vincent Millay. Rev. ed. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1982.
Freedman, Diane P., ed. Millay at One Hundred: A Critical Reappraisal. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1995.
Milford, Nancy. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay. New York: Random House, 2002.
Nierman, Judith. Edna St. Vincent Millay: A Reference Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1977.
Thesing, William B., ed. Critical Essays on Edna St. Vincent Millay. New York: G. K. Hall, 1993.