The poems written by Mina Loy and Edna St. Vincent Millay in 1914, 1920, and 1923 respectively, at first seem to be in direct contrast. Looking at only the titles, one may not see the contrast at first. Mina Loy’s poem “Virgins plus Curtains minus Dots” gives the reader a small sense of what the following poem is about. However, when looking at the titles of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poems “First Fig” and “I, being born a woman and distressed,” leaves the reader wondering what the following poems could be about.
When one sees the word virgin in a title, they think of purity and delicate flowers that haven’t been deflowered. However, the last stanza of this poem gives the reader a much different view on virginity when it says,
Some behind curtains
Throbs to the night
Bait to the stars
Spread it with gold
And you carry it home
Against your shirt front
To . . . . . . . a shaded light
With the door locked
Against virgins who
Might scratch.
This last stanza leaves the reader with the image of virgins, who are masturbating because they are locked away and have no men to have sex with. When this stanza is compared to Millay’s line in “First Fig” that says, “My candle burns at both ends;” (22) and the line in “I, being born a woman and distressed that says, “To bear your body's weight upon my breast:,” (23) the reader can see that the unifying theme for these two poems is sex. Woman will find a way for their sexual desires to be met, with or without a man. Men can try locking woman away so that they will remain “pure” and “virginal” and instead women will own their own sexuality and masturbate. Men will try to own woman and have a relationship with them, and instead woman will use them to find pleasure and then discard them. These poems show that women are sexual creatures who will find a way to get the pleasure they want and deserve.
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