Early poems

In finely crafted lyrics and sonnets, Edna St. Vincent Millay gave voice to her generation's claim to personal freedom and earned a reputation as a sexually liberated free-thinker. But her subject matter varies widely - from meditations on nature, love, life, loss, death, and the reincarnation of the human soul to commentaries on politics and discrimination against women - and reveals poetic influences from the classical to the romantic.

Comprising Millay's first three books - Renascence (1917), A Few Figs from Thistles (1920; revised 1922), and Second April (1921) - this fully annotated volume presents the auspicious beginning of her career. As popular today as when the poet herself enraptured audiences, Millay's work is at last being appreciated for its beauty and depth as well as its impact on the American literary tradition.