Lament By Edna St. Vincent Millay

738 Words3 Pages
How does one deal with the loss of a loved one? Does one just shake it off or sit around and cry? In the poem Lament, by Edna St. Vincent Millay, it tells a story about how a mother tries to be strong for her children. Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Lament” uses a widow as the speaker of the poem. The husband dies and leaves a few things that she makes for the children, so they will have something to remember their father by. There are two children left with the widow. The mother must face both her grief and the continued daily needs of her children. At the beginning she says, “Listen, children: you father is dead.” It comes off as her being blunt about the situation. One would think she’s being harsh about the death of her husband. But, she is actually trying to be…show more content…
She had a grown daughter and a son who was only in middle school. I wanted to cry and break down so many times. But, I always thought of my little cousin. I couldn’t let him see me like that. I wanted to be strong for him. I still had my mom, but he didn’t. So why would I be selfish? Just like the mom in Lament, I was trying to be strong for him. I even gave him things I had that belonged to my aunt. I really close to my aunt. When she became really sick, she gave me her necklace. When my aunt passed, I gave it to my little cousin. He was so strong and I wanted to be even stronger. People would have thought I was his 2nd mom seeing all that I did for him. I didn’t have time to grieve over the loss of my aunt, because I was too focused on my little cousin. He didn’t take it hard because he knew his mom was sick. He didn’t want his mom to suffer anymore. I actually admired him. But as his older cousin, I felt the need to look out for him while his sister was in college. I didn’t have to accept my aunt’s death. I didn’t really want her to be gone. In reality, I was only trying to be strong for my cousin so I wouldn’t have to deal with the
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    Edna St Vincent Millay, also known as E.Vincent Millay, was born on February 22, 1892, in Rockland, Maine, and died on October 19, 1950, in Austerlitz, New York, at the age of 58. She was an American lyrical poet, who wrote under the pseudonym, Nancy Boyd. As a child, she referred to herself as Vincent, hence, that was her nickname and all acquaintances addressed her by that name. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1923. Millay is best known as one of the most respected American poets

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