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Edna St. Vincent Millay - Sonnet 06: Bluebeard

This door you might not open, and you did;
   So enter now, and see for what slight thing
You are betrayed.... Here is no treasure hid
   No cauldron, no clear crystal mirroring
The sought-for truth, no heads of women slain
   For greed like yours, no writhings of distress
But only what you see.... Look yet again—
   An empty room, cobwebbed and comfortless
Yet this alone out of my life I kept
   Unto myself, lest any know me quite;
And you did so profane me when you crept
   Unto the threshold of this room to-night
That I must never more behold your face. 
   This now is yours. I seek another place.

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Added: Feb 21 2003 | Viewed: 7573 times | Comments and analysis of Sonnet 06: Bluebeard by Edna St. Vincent Millay Comments (2)

Sonnet 06: Bluebeard - Comments and Information

Poet: Edna St. Vincent Millay
Poem: 6. Sonnet 06: Bluebeard
Volume: Renascence and Other Poems
- Sonnets
Year: Published/Written in 1917
Poem of the Day: Jun 1 2005

Comment 2 of 2, added on February 25th, 2007 at 6:05 PM.

The writer of the previous post is obviously unfamiliar with Bluebeard, the fictional ladykiller--literally--who hid his many murdered wives in a locked room. Literally, the poem is a retelling of Bluebeard's tale with an alternate ending (although the Bluebeard story could simply be a conceit, a metaphor to conceptualize the speaker's situation). The "Bluebeard" figure is reconstructed as a victim of mental and emotional trespass; the entered room is not a chamber of horros but an emblem of invaded solitude. The gruesome fairytale is transformed into a relationship crisis. Since Bluebeard is the starring character in the poem's sustained metaphor, the title is perfectly apt.

evechloe from United States
Comment 1 of 2, added on May 21st, 2006 at 10:10 PM.

the name "bluebeard" doesn't make any sence it doesn't go with the poem thats written!!!


dhanisha patel from Canada

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