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.

Analysis, meaning and summary of Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem Sonnet 06: Bluebeard

2 Comments

  1. evechloe says:

    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.

  2. dhanisha patel says:

    the name “bluebeard” doesn’t make any sence it doesn’t go with the poem thats written!!!

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