I Did It!

Edna St. Vincent Millay

The day before Thanksgiving--November 22, 2017 (oddly, the anniversary of the JFK assassination)--I resolved that I was going to memorize Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem "Renascence," 1912 (oddly, the year before my father was born).

So ... why did I pick this poem? And why did it take me so Damn Long?

• Why did I pick this poem?
• I like Millay. Ever since I reviewed a couple of biographies of her (for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 16, 2001), I've gained a new appreciation for her. She had pretty much fallen off the literary radar in my school days, but these books help restore her to public awareness, to the literary canon.
• Because I got so interested in her, Joyce and I traveled around to some key sites in her life--especially in Rockland and Camden, Maine (she was born in the former in 1892, grew up in the latter) and Austerlitz, New York, her final home (now a museum), the place where she died in 1950 after a fall down the stairs. (Those of you who are not arithmetically challenged can see that she was only twenty at the time of "Renascence.")
• But the main reason was this: Joyce told me that in girlhood she had memorized the poem and had recited it for various groups--including for those living in what we used to call "Old Folks' Homes."
• So ... I decided to do it to honor Joyce ...
• And why did it take me so Damn Long?
• It's a Damn Long poem for one thing--214 lines, to be exact. (Link to the poem.)
• I should note that Millay made the task a bit easier: regular poetic feet (iambic tetrameter, rhyming couplets).
• I pasted the poem onto note cards (8-10 lines/card) and carried them around with me, reviewing, reviewing, reviewing. I learned lines while I was
• lying in bed at night
• undergoing immunotherapy
• walking over to the coffee shop
• sitting in the coffee shop
• driving out to the health club
• etc.

some of my notecards

In a few moments I'm going to go upstairs to Joyce's study. She will be sitting at her computer, writing. She always likes to read through my blog posts--and I love it (!?!) when she find typos and/or solecisms!*

And after she reads the blog (and I fix the boo-boos), I will recite "Renascence" to her, and I will stumble here and there, and, probably, I will weep.

*PS--later--she found 3 typos, which I have fixed!

birth house, Rockland, ME

Camden, ME--site of the poem

ditto

final home, Austerlitz, NY

Millay's grave in Austerlitz