“Ashes of Life” by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1917)

“Ashes of Life” initially appeared in the 1917 publication Renascence and Other Poems. While “I will put Chaos into fourteen lines” takes a more optimistic approach to life and its tribulations by showing how the speaker reclaims control over disorder and mishap, this 1917 poem is much more pessimistic. The speaker in this Millay work has either lost a loved one to death or recently experienced a breakup. The apathetic speaker is numb to their surroundings, relating the monotony of life that continues around them as they simply go through the motions of living.

“Kin to Sorrow” by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1917)

“Kin to Sorrow” first appeared in the same publication as “Ashes of Life,” the 1917 collection Renascence and Other Poems. Carrying the same pessimism as the previous poem as well, the speaker bemoans their close affinity with sorrow and pain. No matter how much they strive to keep worry or despair away or surround their life with positivity, nothing keeps sorrow away for any extended period of time. By the poem’s conclusion, the speaker seems to have accepted their fate and close relationship with life’s hardships.