In which I interrogate the text from the wrong perspective
I was reading Millay late last night, which I do when I am in certain moods. I always find something new, something different from the last time I picked up Collected Poems.
This sonnet caught my interest--I believe it is from Fatal Interview:
Not in a silver casket cool with pearls
Or rich with red corundum or with blue,
Locked, and the key withheld, as other girls
Have given their loves, I give my love to you;
Not in a lovers'-knot, not in a ring
Worked in such fashion, and the legend plain--
Semper fidelis, where a secret spring
Kennels a drop of mischief for the brain:
Love in the open hand, no thing but that,
Ungemmed, unhidden, wishing not to hurt,
As one should bring you cowslips in a hat
Swung from the hand, or apples in her skirt,
I bring you, calling out as children do:
"Look what I have!--And these are all for you."
I'm curious if you, dear reader, take away from this what I do... it struck me in the face after a few reads, and I remembered again how incredibly subversive Millay was.