1. Pity me not because the light of day by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna was a bit of a prodigy
Had her first success nationally at 13
After WW2, as she spent so much time praising democracy in America she went downhill in
her career
Pretty, bisexual, married a man, were devoted
Modern Shakespearean sonnet
o Has three quatrains and then ends in a couplet
o Same rhyme scheme as Sonnet 116 ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
There’s a big change in mood at the end verse
o Change in mood occurs at line 12 – just like Sonnet 116
Lines 1/2 - ‘end of day’ – don’t pity her as she has lost the light of day
o Just like the end of a day her love life has come to an end
o This is a metaphor – as it is a comparison
Lins 3/4- Just like the years come to an end, going from season to season, her love life has
ended
In the first quatrain – there are two significant metaphors
Line 5/6- first two lines of quatrain 2 = 2 more metaphors
o ‘waning of the moon’ – end of the full moon
o Ebbing tide goes out to sea’ – full tide has receded
o Once her life was full tide but now it has ebbed
Lines 1 -4 –
o 2 lines on end of the day
o 2 lines on end of year
Lines 5-8 – 1 line on the moon
o 1 line on tide
o 2 lines on end of love
4 complex metaphors used to compare her love to natural events
In second two lines of 2nd quatrain, she expresses us what has happened straightforwardly
Don’t pity me as my lovers desire for me = lost
Line 9 – she uses ‘ you’ making it intimate and personal
She is addressing poem to her lover
In last quatrain she is answering why she must not be pitied
Line 9 – this she as always known
Line 10 – no more like a flower, it is inevitably doomed
o Though the flower may be dismantled by wind, the flower will sprinkle seeds and
new flowers will bloom – new lovers
Rhyme Scheme
Simple ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

2. Though in sonnet 116 it provides solidity, here it acts as a control mechanism for deep
emotions
Different quality between both
Tones
Two different tones
Poem changes from negative to afirmitive
o ‘Pity me not’ – NOT
o Couplet in the end  affirmative something strongly + positively  ‘pity me for
THIS’
2 lines of 1st quatrain – repetition of ‘l’  abilence  finction = to emphasise idea also to
establish a matter of tone
o Has emotional affect  lulling  sets a gentle tone
Gentle, thoughtful, kindly tone
Line 8 – where she addresses him by introducing some bitterness – is she blaming him?
o Not of blame – admonishment – telling somebody off  finger wagging
She’s generally saying stuff to her lover which is hurtful, but in a gentle way
Line 9 – ‘this have I’  inversion of regular grammatical order – she wants this to be very
important
‘treads the shifting shores’  repetition of ‘s’  sounds like waves  rhythm imitates
action of waves
Line 12 ‘wreckage gathered in the gales’ – hard consonants ‘g’  sounds harsh 
alliteration of g
In iambic pentameter
The iambics are far more regular
Look at book for pattern
Controlled rhyme scheme  the metre has some purpose as she is controlling tightly the
emotions
The regularity of the metre restrains the emotions
She avoids monotony with trochaic substitutions
compared to sonnet 116  far more regular
Last couplet = poignant – sticks itself into you and hurts you