Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sonnet (Millay)

I see so clearly now my similar years
 Renew each other, shod in rusty black,

hack carriages

A hack is a hired carriage for funerals—cheap, impersonal transport. The repetition "hack following another hack" makes years into identical rented vehicles.

 Like one hack following another hack
 In meaningless procession, dry of tears
Driven empty, lest the noses, sharp as shears,

empty hearse

The hearse is "driven empty" to hide that no one cared enough to attend. The fear isn't death but dying unmourned.

 Of gutter urchins at a hearse's back
 Should sniff a man died friendless, and attack

deaf, triumphant

Dead ears are "triumphant" because they can't hear mockery. Death as victory over humiliation, not tragedy.

 With silly scorn his deaf, triumphant ears—
I see so clearly how my life must run,
 One year behind another year, until
 At length these bones that leap into the sun

leap into the sun

The only moment of vitality in the whole poem—"leap"—is immediately followed by burial. Life as brief interruption of death.

Are lowered into the gravel and lie still,
 I would at times the funeral were done

ultimate hill

Cemetery on a hill, but "ultimate" makes it final destination. She wants to skip to being "abandoned"—past caring, past being cared about.

 And I abandoned on the ultimate hill.
The CenturyEdna St. Vincent Millay
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

The Funeral No One Attends

This is a sonnet about social death, not physical death. Millay's speaker doesn't fear dying—she fears the hack funeral, the cheap hired carriage that announces you died alone. The whole octave is one sentence describing years as "meaningless procession" of identical black carriages, "dry of tears" because no mourners came.

The specific fear is gutter urchins sniffing out a friendless death. In early 20th century funerals, empty hearses were driven to disguise that no one attended—a social shame visible to street children who would mock the corpse. "Noses, sharp as shears" makes poverty and social failure into predators.

But notice "deaf, triumphant ears"—the only triumph in the poem is being dead enough not to care. The octave's elaborate fear (what if people know I died alone?) resolves into: death wins because shame requires consciousness.

Millay's Petrarchan Reversal

This is a Petrarchan sonnet with the volta at line 9: "I see so clearly how my life must run." The octave describes the fear, the sestet accepts it. But Millay reverses the usual move—instead of resolving toward hope, she doubles down on despair.

The sestet's imagery shifts from funeral procession to burial: "these bones that leap into the sun / Are lowered into the gravel." The only vital verb—"leap"—is immediately negated by "lowered" and "lie still." Life is one line, death is the rest.

The final couplet ("I would at times the funeral were done / And I abandoned") uses subjunctive mood—"I would" not "I will." She's wishing to skip to abandonment, to be past the point of caring whether anyone cared. The ultimate hill isn't heaven, it's indifference.