What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a lament for past lovers, their fading memories and the passage of time.
This study guide is written for students and teachers of English Literature, particularly those studying CCEA’s GCSE English Literature Conflict Anthology. For more study guides from this anthology, check out the Conflict page, or the list of poems in the series at the bottom of this guide.
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why
What is 'What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why' about?
Summary of verse 1
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a lament for lost youth, and an exploration of love, loss, and the passage of time.
In the opening lines, the speaker reflects on their past experiences of love and intimacy. The speaker attempts to remember the various kisses, and the lovers with whom they have shared a bed.
She explains that the weather keeps her awake on this particular night. The rain is tapping against her window and bringing painful memories of the young men who are gone.
Summary of verse 2
In a metaphor, she compares these past lovers to birds that fly away from a tree. The tree does not remember them. Likewise, she cannot remember all of her lovers as time passes and seasons change. As these memories fade, the speaker is left with a sense of melancholy and solitude.
Context of 'What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why'
Edna St. Vincent Millay's life, education and career
Edna St. Vincent Millay was born on February 22, 1892, in Rockland, Maine, USA. Millay is acknowledged as one of the most prominent American poets and playwrights of the early 20th century.
Millay’s early life was marked by financial struggles and instability following her parents’ divorce. Despite these challenges, her mother recognised her daughter’s literary talent and encouraged her education. Millay’s middle name, St. Vincent, is a reference to St. Vincent’s Hospital, NYC, where Edna’s uncle’s life was saved soon before her own birth there. Edna referred to herself as ‘Vincent’. Millay and her two sisters were raised to be very independent and free, enjoying a liberal life of smoking, drinking and partying with men.
Millay attended Vassar College on a scholarship, where she distinguished herself as a gifted student and poet. It was during her time at Vassar that Millay’s poetic career began to flourish, with the publication of her poem ‘Renascence’ gaining widespread acclaim. However, Millay found Vassar a difficult place due to its conservative attitudes in comparison to her own liberal, feminist and activist mindset. Indeed, Millay was suspended from Vassar in 1917, although she was allowed to graduate along with the rest of her class in 1917.
After graduating, Millay moved to Greenwich Village, New York City, immersing herself in bohemian culture and her writing, and gaining a reputation as a highly gifted poet.
Millay’s poetry often explored themes of love, femininity, and social justice. Some of her most famous works include ‘A Few Figs from Thistles,’ ‘Second April,’ and ‘Fatal Interview.’ Throughout her life, Millay received numerous awards for her poetry. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for her collection ‘The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver’ which includes this sonnet, ‘What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why’. She also ventured into playwriting, achieving success with works like ‘Aria da Capo’. ‘Aria da Capo’ which is an anti-war play starring her sister Norma Millay, written in 1919, shortly after the end of World War One.
She passed away on October 19, 1950.
Context of 'What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why'
‘What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why‘ was first published in the magazine ‘Vanity Fair’ in 1922, and then included as part of Millay’s 1923 Pulitzer Prize winning collection ‘The Harp Weaver’.
This sonnet, ‘What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why‘ was published 1922, four years after the end of World War I.
Romantic relationships
In ‘What lips my lips have kissed’, the speaker acknowledges that she cannot remember her past lovers.
According to Maggie Doherty’s excellent New Yorker article on Millay (How Fame Fed on Edna St. Vincent Millay, 9th May 2022, New Yorker Magazine), Millay had a reputation for her sexual freedom and open, bisexual relationships:
“Today, she is often remembered as the “poet-girl” of the Roaring Twenties, traipsing from bed to bed in downtown Manhattan, if she is remembered at all.” (Doherty, 9/5/2022).
Millay's attitude to conflict
Millay was known for her pacifist beliefs and expressed strong anti-war sentiments in some of her poetry. She was deeply troubled by the violence and destruction of World War I, and her pacifist stance influenced her writing, albeit indirectly. Her poems often convey a sense of sorrow and disillusionment over the human cost of war, emphasising the tragic consequences of conflict.
However, later in her life, in the run-up to the outbreak of WWII, Millay was alarmed by fascism and encouraged the USA to join the war. This change in her mindset, from pacifist to ‘active pacifist’ and supporting the US war effort, had an impact on her poetry and her public reputation. However, these attitudes to war during WWII have little impact on ‘What my lips have kissed, and where, and why’, as the poem was written before Millay’s attitudes changed.
Line-by-line analysis
Stanza 1
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
- The first line of the poem also serves as the title, as is common practice with sonnets
- Alliteration is used in the repetition of the ‘wh’ and the ‘h’ sound in “what … have kissed, and where, and why.”
- The triplet of interrogative pronouns ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘why’ prompts introspection and highlights the uncertainty of the speaker’s memories.
- Caesura (pauses after punctuation in the middle of the line) creates a fractured opening line, adding to the effect of grasping for a memory which is out of reach.
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
- The speaker laments forgetting the details of their past lovers and the embrace of their arms.
- The enjambment between lines 2 and 3 creates a sense of continuation, reflecting the speaker’s stream of consciousness.
- Repetition of the conjunction “and” emphasises the cumulative effect of forgotten experiences.
Under my head till morning; but the rain
- The grasping for memories of these past lovers ends with the semi-colon which creates another caesura, and the shift in ideas is highlighted by the contrasting conjunction ‘but’.
- The rain serves as a metaphor for the speaker’s memories, which are filled with ‘ghosts’ of past lovers.
- Pathetic fallacy is used to enhance the mood of melancholy and lamenting, with rain setting the negative mood.
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
- The use of caesura after ‘full of ghosts tonight’ creates a pause which lingers on the word ‘ghosts’, emphasising the haunting atmosphere, further highlighted by the onomatopoeic ‘sigh’ at the end of the line.
- Personification is used as the raindrops are described as ‘ghosts’ that ‘tap and sigh’ and ‘listen for reply’
- ‘Ghosts’ refers to those lovers who are now only faded, unreachable memories. However, ‘ghosts’ also suggests the theme of death. Given the time of writing, 1922, it is possible that these ‘ghosts’ of ‘unremembered lads’ are soldiers who died during World War One, connecting this sonnet to the theme of conflict.
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
- Personification continues the extended metaphor from the previous two lines.
- The active verbs ‘tap’, ‘sigh’ and ‘listen’ suggest that the past lovers are calling for the speaker, but she cannot quite remember them. There is a sense of unfulfilled possibilities here; she cannot remember them, and they cannot communicate with her.
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
- The repetition of the ‘s’ sound in ‘stirs’ creates a soft, sorrowful tone and emphasises the speaker’s emotional turmoil.
- Repetition of ‘And’ at the start of the line echoes the use of ‘and’ in the opening two lines, and lengthens the sentence, which has run on right to the end of the stanza. The effect of this long sentence with tagged on coordinating clauses is to emphasise the theme of forgotten experiences and underscores the speaker’s sense of loss.
- Enjambment in the continuation of the sentence from line 6 to line 7 reflects the ongoing nature of the speaker’s pain and longing.
For unremembered lads that not again
- Who these ‘unremembered lads’ are is not entirely clear. In the most obvious sense, they are past lovers who the speaker cannot remember. In this sense, they are ‘unremembered’ only to the speaker, and potentially, they are still alive. But in a wider context, these ‘unremembered lads’ could be a reference to those ‘lads’ who gave their lives during the War, and who may or may not be remembered by the nation. In this reading, it makes sense that they are ‘ghosts’ in that they are dead, rather than simply ‘ghosts’ in the speaker’s memory.
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
- The speaker laments their presence in her life in this moment: the days of a midnight cry are gone, and she mourns for it.
- In referring to the cries at ‘midnight’, there is the implication that these cries are of pleasure and enjoyment of sharing a bed, given that she mourns their absence. However, it is also possible that the midnight cries are those of pain or nightmares. In this sense, the speaker is lamenting the loss of the whole experience: the highs and lows of emotional connection to another. As we will see in the following stanza, the speaker is left in older age feeling disconnected and lonely, in the winter of her life. The youthful emotion, whether of pleasure or of pain, is gone.
- The octave finishes with a full stop, bringing this long opening sentence to a decisive end. The verse structure is in keeping with the form of the Italian sonnet of an octave separated from a sestet.
Stanza 2
Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
- Verse 2 of this poem is a sestet (six-line verse), in keeping with the form of the sonnet.
- ‘Thus’ marks the volta, or turn. Our attention is drawn to the very slight change to the rhythm: while the rest of the poem is iambic pentameter, this line opens with a trochee rather than an iamb. This means that the syllable ‘Thus’ is stressed first, as in a trochee, rather than coming second, as in an iamb. After this slight alteration to the rhythm, the poem returns to iambic meter. (see below for analysis of the rhythm of the poem).
- The sestet is an extended comparison of the speaker to a bare winter tree. In this imagery, the reference to the seasons is a metaphor for the speaker’s age: she is in the winter of her life, lamenting the loss of summer.
- Personification of the winter tree as ‘lonely’ indicates the speaker’s inability to remember and to emphasise her loneliness.
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
- ‘Birds’ are a symbol of her lost lovers who have flown away.
- ‘One by one’ is long and drawn out, emphasising the melancholic tone.
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
- The tree is personified as possessing knowledge and awareness, enhancing the imagery of the tree’s increasing silence.
- The repetition of ‘knows’ underscores the tree’s awareness of its own quietness and emphasises the theme of loss. The reader is reminded that the speaker is the one silent and alone, and the sombre tone continues.
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
- Anaphora in the repetition of ‘I’ at the beginning of this line and the next emphasises the speaker’s personal reflection and introspection. Millay’s poetry is praised for exploring women’s thoughts. In this Italian sonnet, which is traditional a form for men, Millay rebels against tradition by exploring the female mind relentlessly throughout the poem.
- The juxtaposition of past and present in ‘come and gone’ highlights the speaker’s realisation of their current emotional state and the loss of their former vitality.
- The theme of remembering continues. The sestet offers no relief from the problem of the octave: she still cannot remember these lovers.
I only know that summer sang in me
- ‘Summer sang in me’ metaphorically represents a period of joy and vitality in the speaker’s life: the time when she loved much and experienced much, contrasting with her current emotional emptiness.
- The metaphor is emphasised by the sibilant ‘s’ of ‘summer sang’.
- The joyful metaphor of ‘summer sang in me’ is undermined by the use of the past tense verb ‘sang’. This emphasis on past tense hammers home to the reader that time has passed and her situation has changed irreversibly.
A little while, that in me sings no more.
- The speaker moves from the past to the present; the past is mostly positive whereas the present is mostly isolation. This is emphasised by the only use of a present tense verb in the poem, ‘sings’.
- The last lines are deeply sad as the speaker remembers the past and seems devoid of hope for the present.
Analysis of form and structure
‘What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why’ is an Italian, or Petrarchan sonnet. As such, it follows a tight pattern of rhythm, rhyme and versification in order to intensify the emotion of the speaker. If you would like to explore the form of the sonnet, check out some other ThinkLit study guides on well known sonnets.
Sonnets:
Verse structure in an Italian sonnet
‘What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay follows the form of an Italian sonnet, which traditionally consists of fourteen lines divided into an octave (eight lines) followed by a sestet (six lines).
Millay follows this structure in her poem, with the first eight lines presenting one set of ideas (that of fading memories), and the final six lines offering a resolution or a shift in perspective (viewing herself as a bare winter tree).
The volta, or turn, occurs at the beginning of the sestet, marked by the transition word ‘Thus’. This signals a shift in focus from the speaker’s personal experiences to a broader reflection on the passage of time and the inevitability of change.
Italian, or Petrarchan sonnets, often explore the theme of unrequited love. However, in Millay’s sonnet, it is not unrequited love but love forgotten and memories past that form the octave’s central theme.
Rhyme
The rhyme scheme of Millay’s poem ‘What my lips have kissed, and where, and why’ follows the traditional pattern of an Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet.
The octave (first eight lines) adheres to the rhyme scheme ABBAABBA. This means that there are only two rhyming sounds in the octave, giving intensity to the sound and the emotion.
The sestet (final six lines) in Petrarchan sonnets follow a rhyme scheme of CDECDE. The two tercets (groups of three lines) separate the rhyming sounds (i.e. there are two new sounds in between the rhyming sounds), creating a longer echo and drawing out an even more melancholic tone.
Rhythm
The rhythm, or meter, of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem ‘What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why’ is iambic pentameter.
Iambic pentameter consists of lines with five metrical feet, where each foot is made up of two syllables, with the stress falling on the second syllable (an ‘iamb’). This creates a rhythmic pattern that is often described as da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM.
Throughout the poem, Millay maintains a consistent iambic pentameter pattern, providing a regular and rhythmic flow to the verse. Each line consists of five iambs, contributing to the poem’s formal structure and musicality. Let’s look at the first four lines to help us understand. The backslash shows the division between each pair of syllables, and the bold shows the stressed syllable:
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Themes in 'What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why'
Remembering the past
The theme of remembering the past is woven into the fabric of the speaker’s reflections on their romantic encounters. Through nostalgic reminiscences of past kisses and intimate moments, the speaker grapples with the passage of time and the fading of these memories. They express a sense of longing and wistfulness for experiences that have slipped away, unable to fully recollect the details of lost loves and forgotten encounters.
However, amidst the melancholy, there is also an acceptance of the transient nature of human connections and the impermanence of joy. The speaker acknowledges that while they may not remember all the loves that have come and gone, they still hold onto the memories of moments when happiness resonated within them. This theme is also important in Easter Monday and Last Post, both of which would provide good opportunities for comparison and contrast.
Conflict
Conflict emerges from the speaker’s internal struggle and emotional turmoil. The poem primarily explores the tension between forgetfulness and remembrance, as the speaker grapples with the fading recollection of past romantic encounters.
This internal conflict manifests in the speaker’s melancholic tone when describing lost loves and forgotten moments. Additionally, there is a conflict between the fleeting nature of human experiences and the desire for permanence, as the speaker confronts the passage of time and the transience of joy.
Written in 1922, the poem’s context of post-war USA may also play a part in the theme of conflict. The reference to ‘unremembered lads’ is perhaps a very vague reference to lost soldiers.
Loneliness
The speaker’s introspective reflections evoke themes of isolation and solitude, as they confront their own emotional turmoil and existential dilemmas. This theme underscores the speaker’s sense of loneliness and alienation amidst their memories of past loves.
Nature
Nature is a backdrop for the speaker’s reflections, with imagery such as rain, trees, and seasons contributing to the poem’s mood and atmosphere. These natural elements also carry symbolic significance, reflecting the cyclical nature of life and the passage of time. In this way, ‘What lips my lips have kissed’ could be compared and contrasted with Easter Monday, Bayonet Charge or Requiem for the Croppies.
Quiz on 'What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why' by Edna St. Vincent Millay
‘What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why’ Quiz
Test your knowledge of the poem 'What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why' by Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Comprehension Questions
- How does the speaker characterise their past experiences with love and intimacy in the poem?
- What effect does the first line “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” have on the tone and mood of the poem?
- How does the imagery of rain contribute to the overall atmosphere of the poem? What emotions does it evoke?
- Discuss the significance of the metaphor of rain as ‘full of ghosts’ tapping and sighing upon the glass. What does it reveal about the speaker’s emotional state?
- In what ways does the speaker express feelings of regret or loss throughout the poem? Provide specific examples from the text.
- What is the symbolic significance of the lonely tree mentioned in the poem’s closing lines? How does it relate to the speaker’s experiences of love and loss?
- How does the speaker’s use of the seasons as a metaphor for their past experiences with love deepen the emotive power of the poem?
- Discuss the role of memory and forgetfulness in the poem. How do these themes contribute to the speaker’s reflections on their past loves?
- What is the overall message or theme conveyed by “What My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why”?
- What poem would you select from the CCEA Conflict anthology as most suitable for a compare and contrast essay. Outline the specific ways in which your chosen poem is both similar and different to ‘What my lips have kissed, and where, and why’ to help you create an essay plan.
Both poems use the form of the sonnet to explore intense emotions of love and loss. Millay’s poem laments the loss of memories and of youth, while Easter Monday laments the loss of a specific person. In their similar forms and themes, there is much for students to compare. Written only 5 years apart, there are overlaps in the contexts, although the attitudes and motivations of the poets are quite different.
Both poems explore the theme of remembering the past. Millay’s poem is a melancholy reflection on the loss of memories of past love, while Duffy’s commemorates the memory of soldiers who have died in war. In both poems, memory serves as a central focus, highlighting the impact of loss. These poems are very different in their forms and contexts, giving students plenty of opportunity for contrast.
Both Millay’s and Weir’s poems explore the theme of memory and loss. Millay reflects on past romantic encounters and the nature of memory, while Weir’s poem reflects on the memory of a loved one lost in war. Millay’s speaker expresses a sense of wistfulness and regret for lost loves, while Weir’s poem evokes feelings of grief and remembrance for the loss of a son. The poems are very different in their forms and contexts, giving students plenty to explore.
CCEA Conflict Anthology Study Guides:
