American Literature / Unit 14 AML 1336 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Edna St. Vincent Millay and the Sonnet Revival
Captions available
The idea
Millay wrote sonnets and formal lyrics while her contemporaries dismantled the line, and was enormously popular. "First Fig" burns its candle at both ends and declares that it gives a lovely light, four lines that carried a decade's idea of itself.
In practice
A candle burned at both ends.
Where people slip
Popularity kept her out of the modernist canon.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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