#1   Julia Vanlerberghe

I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed

    by Edna St. Vincent Millay

1    I, being born a woman and distressed
2    By all needs and notions of my kind,
3    Am urged by your propinquity to find
4    Your person fair, and feel a certain zest
5    To bear your body’s weight upon my breast:
6    So subtly is the fume of life designed,
7    To clarify the pulse and cloud the mind,
8    And leave me once again undone, possessed.
9   Think not for this, however, the poor treason
10  Of my stout blood against my staggering brain,
11  I shall remember you with love, or season
12  My scorn with pity,--let me make it plain:
13  I find this frenzy insufficient reason
14  For conversation when we meet again.  

RHETORICAL SITUATION:
The speaker, a woman, is overwhelmed by her feelings and desire for a certain man with whom she has presumably had a sexual experience.  She is addressing him regarding what will happen when they next see one another, the “will you still love me tomorrow,” but turned around.  

MOVEMENT:
The octave of this Italian sonnet is describing her situation and physical reaction to his presence, while the second section, the sestet, shows a turn, where though he has an enormous effect on her, she is  saying she will not choose to interact with him again.  

ALLITERATION
Line 1:  the passive “being born” emphasizes her futility--she can’t help it
Line 5: bear, bodies, breast--it is emphasizing the physical intimacy
Line 6: “So subtly” this line is about scent/odor, and she is emphasizing the subtly and closeness  necessary to smell it.
Line 7: “C”--emphasizing the two physical responses her   body offers
Lines 10-12: “S” sound--stout, staggering, season, scorn--here she presents a turn in the direction of the poem, and she uses the hard “S” sound to emphasize a scientific detachment.
Line 13:  “Find this frenzy” emphasizes confusion  

ANTICLIMAX
Lines 1-14:  It is built up, particularly in terms of physical response, but then her tone drops    significantly for lines 13 and especially 14.  

APOSIOPESIS
Line 11-12:  “I shall remember you with love, or season    / My scorn with pity, --let me make it plain”  She   doesn’t want to explain any more of her feelings; perhaps she decides to get to her point because she was getting too caught up in what she was saying, so her physical responses that she was “wanting” to repress from him were beginning to overwhelm her again, so she breaks from it.  

APPOSITION
Lines 1-3:  “I, being born a woman and distressed / By    all the needs and notion of my kid, / Am…”  She uses the appositive as an attempt to take the blame off of herself--she’s not responsible for feelings this way; it was just how she was born, so don’t think that she chose to have this response.
Lines 6-7:  “So subtly is the fume of life designed, /    To clarify the pulse and cloud the mind…”  She    describes what exactly the purpose of the “fume of   life” is, and in doing so, she highlights her awareness of how she is affected.  

AUXESIS:
Lines 3, 4, 7:  “urged,” “feel,” “clarify”  These verbs       seem to get stronger as she moves through the poem.  

CATACHRESIS
Lines 9-10: Your blood plotting treason against the brain is a pretty far-fetched metaphor.  She does this to show that she doesn’t want to have the emotions as attached to the experience as they are; she  knows logically that is is a bad idea, but her  emotions (blood) is rebelling against that reasoning.  

CIRCUMLOCUTION:
Line 6:  “fume of life” sounds better than sweat or smell of hormones  

COMPLEX SENTENCE
Lines 13-14:  “I find this frenzy insufficient reason/ For conversation when we meet again.”  I think she     does this so that the reader is well aware of the   oncoming dependent clause but doesn’t know what it will be, and when they hear it, they are surprised by it’s simplicity.

DEHORTATIO
Line 9:  “Think not for this…”  She’s telling him not to think about the physical response he causes in   her,  probably with the intent to draw her attention to it, which actually, I think makes it…(see paralepsis)  

EPITHET:
Line 9:  “poor treason”  Treason is usually not rich or   lovely since history books are written by the winners. I think she does this to emphasize her helplessness in the situation 

HOMOIOITELEUTON
Lines 1, 3, 6, 8:  “distressed,” “urged,” “designed,”   and “possessed”   Perhaps to emphasize that these   are all things in the past that cannot be changed.?

HYPOTAXIS
All lines; she kind of creates a frenzy like that she   writes of--a clouded mind wherein feelings have rushed in.

IRONY
Lines 13-14:  She acknowledges a pleasant frenzy he causes, and as a result of it, she never wants to speak to him again.

LITOTES/UNDERSTATEMENT
Lines 13-14:  “I find this frenzy insufficient reason /   For conversation when we meet again.”  There is certainly more to why she wouldn’t want to talk to him, and she clearly would want to talk to him. Perhaps she does this to get him “off the hook;”  she doesn’t want him to talk to her only because he feels like he should or because it is the right thing to do. She obviously wants him to know that she enjoyed his company.

METAPHOR
Line 6:  “fume of life”--scent, sweat, perspiration

Line 7:  “Clarify the pulse and cloud the mind”--feel heart rate accelerate and her mind isn’t literally clouded by the smell of him, but it may make it difficult for her to concentrate.

Line 8:  “Possessed”--she means he has her attention and all her concentration is on him.

Line 9-10:  “treason” of her blood against her brain--her blood did not plot to overthrow her brain  

PARALEPSIS
Line 9:  She wouldn’t have addressed this to him and described her feelings toward him in such detail if she didn’t want him to know/think on it/be flattered by it.  

PARALLELISM
Lines 11-12:  “remember you with love, or season / My     scorn with pity,”  She twice used the preposition “with,” and created a contrast.  Her memory will be     one of love, but if the emotion she is left with is scorn, she will have to manipulate it, change it, so that there is pity involved.   It helps to     highlight her true feeling about the situation.  

PERSONIFICATION:
Line 8:  His scent does not literally leave her “undone,” nor does it “possess” her.  She is saying she is, to use another metaphor, a captive; just his scent is enough to enslave her.

Line 10:  Her “stout blood” is accused of “treason” (l.   9) against her “staggering brain.”  This is to emphasize that she is against her strong physical attraction.  She knows that he is not a good person for her to be with, and she can use her logic to say, “no,” but her blood, her emotions, are saying, “yes.”

Line 11-12: “season/ My scorn with pity”--she isn’t        flavoring her feelings; she wants to manipulate them.

PROLEPSIS
Line 14:  I’m not sure about this, but it seems to me that she is assuming there will be a future meeting and protesting it.

SYNECHDOCHE
Lines 5, 10: “body’s weight,” “blood,” “brain”
She does not just want his body weight on her or something equivalent; she wants him. Her blood isn’t betraying her; her emotions and physical responses are reacting in a contrary way   to her wishes.  Her brain isn’t being betrayed; but she is saying that her sensibilities are knowledge  inform what is right, but that is in conflict with her body and feelings.
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English 5730 is taught by Dr. Richard Nordquist.
Armstrong Atlantic State University
Savannah, Georgia 31419
912-921-5991