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In high school, she contributed poems to the school's magazine and also served as its editor. In her early teens Millay had some poems published in the St. Through her mother's influence she was exposed to the work of such well-regarded poets as William Shakespeare (1564–1616), John Milton (1608–1674), and William Wordsworth (1770–1850), as well as novels by nineteenth-century authors Charles Dickens (1812–1870) and George Eliot (1819–1880). She also nurtured their love of literature and music by making sure, despite the family's poverty, that they always had access to books and music lessons.įrom her earliest years, Millay excelled at both music (she once thought of becoming a concert pianist) and writing. Millay's strong-willed, independent mother worked as a visiting nurse, often leaving her daughters to fend for themselves and encouraging them to be self-reliant. When she was eight, and she rarely saw her father after that. The inability of Millay's father, Henry Tolman Millay, to act responsibly and support his family led to her parents' divorce When they instead had a girl, they gave her the middle name of Vincent. Millay was fondly called "Vincent" by her family and friends because her parents had planned to name their son Vincent. A budding talentĮdna St.Vincent Millay was born in Rockland, Maine, but spent most of her childhood living with her mother, Cora Buzzelle Millay, and two sisters in the nearby town of Camden. In her days as a young poet in New York's Greenwich Village artistic community, she embodied the new, sexually liberated woman of the period. Millay became a kind of spokesperson for the post- World War I generation of young people, especially women, who were expressing their rebellion against tradition and their insistence on freedom of thought and behavior. Her work was widely admired by critics as well as a varied audience. Vincent Millay was an especially famous and popular cultural figure during the Roaring Twenties. Recognized as one of the most accomplished poets of the twentieth century, Edna St. "Millay is the poetic voice of eternal youth, feminine revolt and liberation, and sensitivity and suggestiveness."