Document Type
Thesis - University Access Only
Award Date
2002
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department / School
English
Abstract
Edna St. Vincent Millay and Mina Loy were two of the best known poets in America during the 1920s and 1930s. While they held many of the same views, Millay and Loy wrote in two very different styles of poetry. Edna St. Vincent Millay most often wrote in the sonnet form, using regular meters and full rhymes, and employed archaic word choices and inverted word order in her poetry. In contrast, Mina Loy deliberately broke every rule of poetry, withholding traditional meter, rhyme, syntax, grammar, punctuation, and even creating her own words. The two poets demonstrate discontent with the idealized form of love, and help to create a voice for a new, passionate, sexual, and assertive female lover to contrast the stereotypically dependent, beautiful love object created by generations of male poets. Much of their poetry critiques a female's dependence upon a man, and instead offers women an alternative model by acknowledging their sexuality and by determining how love ( or the lack thereof) affects their lives.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Loy, Mina -- Criticism and interpretation Millay, Edna St. Vincent, 1892-1950 -- Criticism and interpretation Poetry -- Women authors -- History and criticism American poetry -- 20th century -- History and criticism
Format
application/pdf
Number of Pages
144
Publisher
South Dakota State University
Recommended Citation
Troth, Laurie, "The "New Woman's" Voice : A Study of the Female Speakers in the Divergent Poetics of Mina Loy and Edna St. Vincent Millay's Poetry" (2002). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 937.
https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd2/937