First Fig

Wit and Wonder

Edna St. Vincent Millay's poems have an unmistakable touch of the wild child, the party animal, the woman-about-town who just knows that she's the funniest and smartest person in the room. When the high Modernists (think Eliot, Pound, and Stein) were stripping poetry of any identifiable speaking personality, Millay continued to write funny, personal, persuasive verse. "First Fig" is just the beginning. Check out "Humoresque" and "Recuerdo" for other examples.