"Love is Not All: It is Not Meat Nor Drink," a sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay - Explicated

Love is Not All "Love is Not All: It is Not Meat Nor Drink," a sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay, uses contrast and mood change as an effective tool to consider a thought. The work is similar to Italian or Petrarchan sonnet; it is divided into two parts, an octet followed by a sestet. However the rhythm scheme does not follow the Italian form. In the first portion of the poem the octet is …

…this earth. We have the ability to remember a lover's touch, the smell of their skin; the intimate moments that we share are part of us. The persona relates to us that she would not trade these experiences for life itself. To have these memories is to live, it is to be alive. Love may not be all, but what it is, it is more than enough. Without love you might as well be dead.