“What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet 43)” Introduction

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“What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet 43)” Summary

“What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet 43)” Themes

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  Love, Memory, and Loss

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet 43)”

• Lines 1-2

  What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
  I have forgotten,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 2-3

  and what arms have lain
  Under my head till morning;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-5

  but the rain
  Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
  Upon the glass and listen for reply,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 6-8

  And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
  For unremembered lads that not again
  Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-11

  Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
  Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
  Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:

  

  

  

  

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• Line 12

  I cannot say what loves have come and gone,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-14

  I only know that summer sang in me
  A little while, that in me sings no more.

  

  

  

  

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“What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet 43)” Symbols

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  Ghosts

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• 

  The Tree

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• 

  Seasons

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“What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet 43)” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Synecdoche

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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“What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet 43)” 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.

• Lain
• Unremembered
• Lads
• Boughs

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet 43)”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet 43)” Speaker

“What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet 43)” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet 43)”

More “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet 43)” Resources

• External Resources

  • Edna St. Vincent Millay's Life Story — A biography from the Poetry Foundation.

  • The Italian Sonnet — A breakdown of the Italian—a.k.a. Petrarchan—sonnet, the form followed by Millay in this poem.

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

  • A Musical Adaptation — Listen to the entire poem set to music.

  • Love Letters — A look at Edna St. Vincent Millay's polyamorous love letters from the 1920s.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay

  • First Fig

  • I, Being born a Woman and Distressed (Sonnet 41)

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

  • Recuerdo

  • The Buck in the Snow