Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Pity me not" is a sonnet of lost love. In this short, sad poem, a speaker tries to reconcile herself to the fact that love, like everything else in the world, inevitably fades away. The speaker tells her one-time lover not to pity her based on the fact that his love has (quite naturally) waned: pity her, the speaker says, because, even though she can understand that love doesn't last forever, her heart's still in terrible pain. The speaker here goes through an old human battle, suffering through the conflict between her quick mind and her unreasoning heart. The poem was published in 1923 as part of a sonnet sequence Millay began in 1920.
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The Full Text of “Pity me not because the light of day (Sonnet 29)”
1Pity me not because the light of day
2At close of day no longer walks the sky;
3Pity me not for beauties passed away
4From field and thicket as the year goes by;
5Pity me not the waning of the moon,
6Nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea,
7Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon,
8And you no longer look with love on me.
9This have I known always: Love is no more
10Than the wide blossom which the wind assails,
11Than the great tide that treads the shifting shore,
12Strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales:
13Pity me that the heart is slow to learn
14What the swift mind beholds at every turn.
The Full Text of “Pity me not because the light of day (Sonnet 29)”
1Pity me not because the light of day
2At close of day no longer walks the sky;
3Pity me not for beauties passed away
4From field and thicket as the year goes by;
5Pity me not the waning of the moon,
6Nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea,
7Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon,
8And you no longer look with love on me.
9This have I known always: Love is no more
10Than the wide blossom which the wind assails,
11Than the great tide that treads the shifting shore,
12Strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales:
13Pity me that the heart is slow to learn
14What the swift mind beholds at every turn.
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“Pity me not because the light of day (Sonnet 29)” Summary
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“Pity me not because the light of day (Sonnet 29)” Themes
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The Struggle Between the Heart and the Mind
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Impermanence
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Pity me not because the light of day (Sonnet 29)”
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Lines 1-2
Pity me not because the light of day
At close of day no longer walks the sky; -
Lines 3-4
Pity me not for beauties passed away
From field and thicket as the year goes by; -
Lines 5-8
Pity me not the waning of the moon,
Nor that the ebbing tide goes out to sea,
Nor that a man’s desire is hushed so soon,
And you no longer look with love on me. -
Lines 9-10
This have I known always: Love is no more
Than the wide blossom which the wind assails, -
Lines 11-12
Than the great tide that treads the shifting shore,
Strewing fresh wreckage gathered in the gales: -
Lines 13-14
Pity me that the heart is slow to learn
What the swift mind beholds at every turn.
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“Pity me not because the light of day (Sonnet 29)” Symbols
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The Sea
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Plants and Flowers
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The Sun and Moon
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“Pity me not because the light of day (Sonnet 29)” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
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Assonance
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Apostrophe
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Caesura
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Anaphora
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Enjambment
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Imagery
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Juxtaposition
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Metaphor
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Sibilance
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“Pity me not because the light of day (Sonnet 29)” 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.
- Pity
- Thicket
- Waning
- Ebbing
- Assails
- Strewing
- Wreckage
- Gales
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Pity me not because the light of day (Sonnet 29)”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Pity me not because the light of day (Sonnet 29)” Speaker
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“Pity me not because the light of day (Sonnet 29)” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Pity me not because the light of day (Sonnet 29)”
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More “Pity me not because the light of day (Sonnet 29)” Resources
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External Resources
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A Celebration of Millay — Two contemporary poets read and discuss Millay's work at a Library of Congress event celebrating Millay's birthday.
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A Short Biography — Read the Poetry Foundation's short biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay, and find links to more of her poetry.
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Millay's Poetic and Personal Reputation — An article from the Guardian on Millay's posthumous reputation.
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Edna St. Vincent Millay Reads the Poem — A recording of Millay herself reading the poem (accompanied by an unnerving animation).
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The Millay Society — The website of a society dedicated to Millay's life and work.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay
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