Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in Rockland, Maine during the year 1892. The Romanticism Era took place roughly between the years 1800-1850, but Edna was not yet born. As a poet of the 20th Century, Millay used aspects of the long-past era to influence her writings, such as: individualism, emotion and the use of vivid imagery and detail. Millay was a revolutionary, both while attending Vassar College in the Hudson Valley and through her everyday life. She transpired what she experienced onto paper, making her nationally recognized as one of the most popular poets and writers of her time. One of her most recognized free verse poems titled “Spring” delves into the foliage and imagery that the Hudson Valley has to offer. As she uses Romanticism …show more content…
“The sun is hot on my neck as I observe the spikes of the crocus. The smell of the earth is good.” The spring season has arrived, the warmer weather has come and the leaves/spikes of plants are flourishing for all to see. Millay sees and smells this all of this with her senses, but she cannot let go of the truth, that with life comes death. “It is apparent that there is no death. But what does that signify?” Edna wishes that those who appreciate the beauty of nature can also realize the existence of death. When she states “But what does that signify?” It makes the reader think about the fact that just because everything is blooming and flourishing now, does not mean that it will stay that way permanently. Spring, the season of life, summer is the time where plants start to go further into their cycle, fall is when the trees bare their leaves and plants wilt, and winter is the gloomy time of the year where plants are dead. This sequence of events can be seen as the cycle of life. Plants and people are born and eventually the time of death comes. The truth is hidden within the appearance of rebirth during the spring