Edna St. Vincent Millay: Biography and Background

What types of literature Millay publish?

Poetry, plays and literary readings

What was Millay’s role in plays?

She acted and wrote them

How are Porter and Millay similar?

They both came form humble origins

Who were Millays sisters?

Kathleen and Norma

Who raised Millay?

Her single mother Cara

What did Cara impress upon Millay?

The importance of refinement, self-determination, and intelligence

What did Cara encourage Millay to do?

Submit a poem to an annual competition

Who held the poetry competition?

The publication The Lyric Year

Where did Millay publish her poems?

In various small journals

What was Millays breakthrough work?

Renascence

What did Renascence contain that would come to define Millays writing?

Carful attention to form and a willingness to mix both grand and common language

Where was Millay offered scholarships to?

Barnard and Vassar

What did Millay take courses in at Barnard and Vassar?

Language

What language courses did Millay take and Barnard and Vassar?

Greek, Latin, and comparative literature

Where did Millay move to?

Greenwich Village, New York City

What was Millays first poetry collection?

Renascence and Other Poems

When was Renascence and Other Poems published?

1917

What would follow Renascence and Other Poems?

A steady stream of poetry collections, opera librettos, translated volumes, short stories, and poetic dramas

What pseudonym did Millay publish her short stories under?

Nancy Boyd

What did Millays writings become associated with?

The passions and freedoms of the Roaring Twenties

What figure could be associated with Millays writings?

The “New Woman”

What did Millay express?

The postwar feelings of young people, their rebellion against tradition, and their mood of freedom

What did Millays work reflect?

Her keen awareness of the imbalanced nature of gender roles in the United States

What popular collections was I being born a woman and distressed in?

A Few Figs from Thistles (1920) and The Harp Weaver and Other Poems (1923)

What did Millay become known as?

A spokesperson for the rights of women and pleasurable courageous living

Millay was the first woman to win what award?

The Plulitzer Prize for Poetry

After Millays heyday as a spokesperson for freedoms, what did she become invested in?

Social Causes

What social causes did Millay first become involved in?

Protests against the Sacco and Vanzetti executions

What did Millay write poetry against?

Facism

What did Millay have precise command of?

Sonnets

Millays poetry can be describes as both what?

Tied to a specific period of time and also limitless in its formal sophistication