Love Is Not All/She Walks in Beauty

I chose to contrast "Love Is Not All" by Edna St. Vincent Millay and "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron, both of which approach the topic of love with almost overwhelming extremity, though at opposing ends.

In "Love Is Not All," Millay seeks to prove that even though love is frequently considered to be one of the best things in life and the main necessity of life, this is mere romanticization of love itself. She writes that even though love does not provide food or shelter or air for our lungs, "Many a man is making friends with death…for lack of love alone;" in this, she implies that a foolish life is lived in depending solely on love. Throughout the poem, the reader gathers the sense that the poet is cynical regarding the topic of love, believing that the general public takes it much too far and that she finds it unnecessary and overrated; the tone is set through the lines such as the title itself, "Love Is Not All" and the following line that "it is not meat nor drink/Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain." For her, love is not about the smallest moments that people appreciate, such as the rain on the roof. At the very end, however, she writes that "I might be driven to sell your love…I do not think I would;" in this, we see that though she sees the possibility of following through with her own words regarding the disposability of love, she chooses to reconsider, if only for a moment. The love that she has felt on "this night" is worth more to her than the food for which she might have traded the memory.

On the other hand, Lord Byron shows an infinite reliance on and faith in love in "She Walks in Beauty," seeming to quite romanticize the love interest. He uses allusions to light and dark, comparing her beauty to "the night/Of cloudless climes and starry skies." He compares her not only to the darkness but also to the light, as if to say that she is the best of both of them, that her beauty is far from being restricted to one or the other. While Millay shows no initial intentions of appreciating the concept of love, Lord Byron fully embraces it, clearly delighting in comparing his love to the deepest of darknesses and the purest lights; his jubilant and romantic tone is set through his word choice, such as in the use of words like "sweet…pure…dear" to describe her face. His descriptions are remarkably unabashed, and, he stands firm in them--unlike the doubting Millay--and shows no sign of beginning to deny to anyone the beauty of his love.