Published in 1922, Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem "The Spring and the Fall” appears within the context of Modernism. Modernist poets aimed to bring poetry into the gritty real world of the early 1900s. They moved from grandeur and isolation. For them, poetry wasn't about conveying lofty, rapturous themes but about how words could express a range of ideas or human emotions. "The Spring and the Fall” aligns with Modernism in its attitude toward love. Love isn’t glorious but glum. It’s painful, with the speaker declaring that the man "broke [her] heart, in little ways (Line 12).

Another aspect of Millay’s poem that joins her to Modernism is fragmentation. Modernist poets like T. S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein emphasized the world's brokenness in their dislocated poems about society, people, and objects. Millay speaks to fragmentation as her speaker’s heart is broken or fragmented. She also breaks apart the division between spring and fall by announcing that there’s "much that’s fine to see and hear” in both seasons.

Yet Millay’s emphasis on rhythm and traditional form separates her from Modernists who preferred harsher sounds and covert rhythms. Eliot’s famous Modernist poem

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now