Collection: A Few Figs from Thistles

Overview
A Few Figs from Thistles (1920) by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a compact, audacious book of lyrics that distilled the poet's flair for wit, sensuality, and formal control into sharply etched, often very short poems. The collection favors epigrams and miniature lyrics that combine classical craft with a modernly brazen voice, giving Millay the freedom to be both coquettish and corrosive. Its economy of line and surprise of image make the book feel like a rapid-fire exchange of aphorisms, every poem a small, memorable bon mot that bites or delights.

Style and Form
The poems in A Few Figs from Thistles are economical and disciplined, often leaning on tight rhyme, clean meter, and vivid, surprising metaphors. Millay frequently compresses a paradox or strong emotion into a handful of lines, producing the effect of an epigram or a lyric maxim. Her diction can be colloquial and conversational yet she remains attentive to sound and musicality, shaping brief statements into memorable cadences. The juxtaposition of an apparently playful tone with sharp formal skill creates a tension that keeps readers off balance and engaged.

Themes
Sensation and defiance sit at the heart of the collection. Many pieces celebrate desire and bodily pleasure with a frankness that was startling for its time, and Millay often frames eroticism as an assertion of individuality and freedom rather than mere sentiment. Carpe diem energy recurs as a rejoinder to prudishness and constraint; life's brevity is an excuse for intensity. Alongside sensual bravado, the poems register irony and vulnerability, acknowledging loss, transience, and the cost that freedom can exact. The gendered voice is central: these are poems by a woman who claims her appetites and mocks the conventions that would silence them.

Notable Poems
Some of the most famous lines in the book appear in the short, punchy piece known as "First Fig," which begins, "My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends, It gives a lovely light!" Such poems function as clarifying flashes: playful, defiant, and immediately quotable. Elsewhere the poems operate as miniatures that double as social commentary or moral paradox, often ending on a sting or a rueful twist. The economy of each lyric means that images land hard and stay in the memory, so that a single brief poem can feel like a complete, self-sufficient statement.

Legacy
A Few Figs from Thistles consolidated Millay's reputation as a leading lyric poet of her generation and marked a distinctive turn toward smaller, sharper poems that would influence subsequent lyric practice. The collection stirred both admiration and scandal for its candid voice and erotic frankness, contributing to Millay's image as a modern, independent woman. Its tiny masterpieces remain frequently anthologized and widely taught, prized for their combination of craft, wit, and moral ambivalence. The book's mix of gaiety and seriousness continues to invite readings that range from celebratory to feminist, ensuring its persistence as a vivid, provocative pocketbook of early twentieth-century lyric.