Blood or Love What keeps us alive, blood or love? In the poem “Love is Not All” written by Edna St. Vincent Millay, the author talks about two different perspectives on love and if it is needed for people to survive. In the first part, she talks about how love cannot keep a person alive or protect them from danger. But in the middle of the poem, she realizes that maybe love is desirable to fill a person’s heart with happiness. At the end of the poem, Millay questions herself about if love is important. She makes a comment about selling her love, but then realizes that she would not. Overall in “Love is Not All,” the theme is that people do not notice how much love impacts their lives until they look at love in different ways.
In the beginning …show more content…
In “Love is Not All,” Millay writes “Yet many a man is making friends with death Even as I speak, for lack of love alone” (Millay line 7-8). This line clarifies that people have a sensation of loneliness because they do not have love in their life. Millay recognizes that people use love to fill their sadness from hunger or danger. As a result, people do not see a purpose of living anymore (2???). After describing why people use love, Millay states, “Pinned down by pain and moaning for release” (Millay line 10). She tries to explain how much pain people feel without love in their lives. Without love, people feel like they are “dead” because love is what makes people joyful. The theme of not noticing love until you look at the deeper meaning is shown in these few lines because it explains how love is used in unusual ways. Love is not a physical object, but an emotion that a person must think about. Millay talks about how she use to look at love as a feeling that was incapable of making people healthy and safe, but now that she looks at love, she sees its abilities. Love can be used to fill the emptiness of a person’s heart from certain situations. Feeling love during a time of weakness can help someone feel protected by and full of affection. After Millay describes her feelings …show more content…
She talks about how she physically does not need love to survive. She says, “I might be driven to sell your love for peace, or trade the memory of this night for food” (Millay line 12-13). Millay knows that in reality that love is not what fills her hunger or puts a roof over her head. Even though she writes that, she feels that love has those powers. With this new opinion in her mind, Millay writes, “It well may be. I do not think I would” (Millay line 14). This is the answer to Millay’s question about if love was an essential. Millay now believes that love is an essential even though she did not realize it at first. The last line of the poem proves that in the end love is a powerful emotion that makes her feel “alive” (1??). Millay’s question supports the theme because she did not realize how much it was impacted her life until she looked deeper into what love is capable of doing. After she looked away from physical needs, she noticed how much the emotion of love helped her through tough
In the beginning …show more content…
In “Love is Not All,” Millay writes “Yet many a man is making friends with death Even as I speak, for lack of love alone” (Millay line 7-8). This line clarifies that people have a sensation of loneliness because they do not have love in their life. Millay recognizes that people use love to fill their sadness from hunger or danger. As a result, people do not see a purpose of living anymore (2???). After describing why people use love, Millay states, “Pinned down by pain and moaning for release” (Millay line 10). She tries to explain how much pain people feel without love in their lives. Without love, people feel like they are “dead” because love is what makes people joyful. The theme of not noticing love until you look at the deeper meaning is shown in these few lines because it explains how love is used in unusual ways. Love is not a physical object, but an emotion that a person must think about. Millay talks about how she use to look at love as a feeling that was incapable of making people healthy and safe, but now that she looks at love, she sees its abilities. Love can be used to fill the emptiness of a person’s heart from certain situations. Feeling love during a time of weakness can help someone feel protected by and full of affection. After Millay describes her feelings …show more content…
She talks about how she physically does not need love to survive. She says, “I might be driven to sell your love for peace, or trade the memory of this night for food” (Millay line 12-13). Millay knows that in reality that love is not what fills her hunger or puts a roof over her head. Even though she writes that, she feels that love has those powers. With this new opinion in her mind, Millay writes, “It well may be. I do not think I would” (Millay line 14). This is the answer to Millay’s question about if love was an essential. Millay now believes that love is an essential even though she did not realize it at first. The last line of the poem proves that in the end love is a powerful emotion that makes her feel “alive” (1??). Millay’s question supports the theme because she did not realize how much it was impacted her life until she looked deeper into what love is capable of doing. After she looked away from physical needs, she noticed how much the emotion of love helped her through tough