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Poet: Edna St. Vincent Millay
Poem: The Plaid Dress
Poem of the Day:
Sep 10 2006
Comment 1 of 1, added on June 30th, 2007 at 7:35 PM.
The poet is speaking about the guilt she feels by not wanting to be held to follow the "moral" code established by the garment that she wears. The plaid dress, symbolic of Catholic school girl and the Catholic religion, is a constant reminder to her to maintain those high virtues. She states "through high judgements given in haste," then counters with "the serious breach of taste," on a literal level the author speaks about the lack of fashion of the plaid dress, but on a deeper level, she is letting us know that she does not deserve to wear the colors of purity because she is unclean. Even with "confession" or "clean bright hair", she is still marked by an unclean act that has shamed her. In the opening of the poem, the "sun" could also be symbolic of the "son of God" and she pleads with him to wash away her sins by making the dress, representing her religion the root of her guilt, basically disappear. What is the sin she has committed? Unpure thoughts maybe? If you read the biography info on the author, she was openly bisexual and in the time period of her life, it was clearly unacceptable. This poem may be about Edna's first unpure thoughts about other women or sex in general.
Chris from United States
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Comments
The poet is speaking about the guilt she feels by not wanting to be held to follow the "moral" code established by the garment that she wears. The plaid dress, symbolic of Catholic school girl and the Catholic religion, is a constant reminder to her to maintain those high virtues. She states "through high judgements given in haste," then counters with "the serious breach of taste," on a literal level the author speaks about the lack of fashion of the plaid dress, but on a deeper level, she is letting us know that she does not deserve to wear the colors of purity because she is unclean. Even with "confession" or "clean bright hair", she is still marked by an unclean act that has shamed her. In the opening of the poem, the "sun" could also be symbolic of the "son of God" and she pleads with him to wash away her sins by making the dress, representing her religion the root of her guilt, basically disappear. What is the sin she has committed? Unpure thoughts maybe? If you read the biography info on the author, she was openly bisexual and in the time period of her life, it was clearly unacceptable. This poem may be about Edna's first unpure thoughts about other women or sex in general.
Chris from United States