“I, Being born a Woman and Distressed (Sonnet 41)” Summary

“I, Being born a Woman and Distressed (Sonnet 41)” Themes

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  Lust vs. Reason

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• 

  Women’s Sexuality and Desire

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “I, Being born a Woman and Distressed (Sonnet 41)”

• Lines 1-2

  I, being born a woman and distressed
  By all the needs and notions of my kind,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-4

  Am urged by your propinquity to find
  Your person fair,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 4-5

  and feel a certain zest
  To bear your body’s weight upon my breast:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 6-8

  So subtly is the fume of life designed,
  To clarify the pulse and cloud the mind,
  And leave me once again undone, possessed.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-10

  Think not for this, however, the poor treason
  Of my stout blood against my staggering brain,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 11-12

  I shall remember you with love, or season
  My scorn with pity,—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 12-14

  let me make it plain:
  I find this frenzy insufficient reason
  For conversation when we meet again.

  

  

  

  

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“I, Being born a Woman and Distressed (Sonnet 41)” Symbols

• 

  Blood

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“I, Being born a Woman and Distressed (Sonnet 41)” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Asyndeton

  

  

  

  

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• Antithesis

  

  

  

  

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“I, Being born a Woman and Distressed (Sonnet 41)” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Distressed
• Notions
• Urged
• Propinquity
• Zest
• Fume
• Clarify
• Treason
• Stout
• Staggering
• Season
• Scorn
• Frenzy
• Insufficient

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I, Being born a Woman and Distressed (Sonnet 41)”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“I, Being born a Woman and Distressed (Sonnet 41)” Speaker

“I, Being born a Woman and Distressed (Sonnet 41)” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “I, Being born a Woman and Distressed (Sonnet 41)”

More “I, Being born a Woman and Distressed (Sonnet 41)” Resources

• External Resources

  • Italian Sonnets — Learn more about the form Millay uses in this poem: the Italian, a.k.a. Petrarchan, sonnet.

  • The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a reading of the poem.

  • The Poem to Music — Listen to the poem sung aloud in this musical adaptation.

  • Millay at Steepletop — Watch the trailer for the documentary "Millay at Steepletop."

  • Photographing the Poet — Watch a lecture on photographic representations of Millay and the poet's relationship with her public image. 

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay

  • First Fig

  • Pity me not because the light of day (Sonnet 29)

  • Recuerdo

  • The Buck in the Snow

  • What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet 43)