‘”nor Yet A Floating Spar To Men That Sink And Rise And Sink And Rise And Sink Again”?

1. synopsis Says

   Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
   Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
   Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
   And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
   Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
   Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
   Yet many a man is making friends with death
   Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
   It well may be that in a difficult hour,
   Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
   Or nagged by want past resolution’s power,
   I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
   Or trade the memory of this night for food.
   It well may be. I do not think I would.
   [Edna St. Vincent Millay]
   Edna is saying that love does not solve all our problems, and that there may be some calamities so intense that they would make love seem irrelevant. But in spite of this, love is so important that it is difficult to think of anything which matters more.
   In the lines you quote, Edna is referencing the folk belief that when someone is drowning they break surface three times before they finally die. If a drowning man could clutch a floating piece of wood (a spar) on his third (last) rising, it truly would save his life.
   Edna is saying that love is not actually a lifesaver ….. perhaps.

2. wine and sponge cake Says

   A spar is a pole that supports rigging on a boat and also means to fight. I think it’s used with both those meanings as a metaphor for giving permanent help to men who lose at war and then build up their country and then go back to war and then rebuild again. So, this is referring probably to the nonsense of 2 world wars back to back. I think it is saying that love just doesn’t help men who rage war to rebuild their country only to have another war.

3. Knames Says

   “Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink and rise and sink and rise and sink again.”
   Basically, it’s saying don’t let people who fail and blame others for there mistakes, so they remain all mighty, become a leader or fight men who are honest and enduring….
   if you added something before it or after it… I could understand it better but just looking at that little sentence could have it mean just about anything.

4. Anonymous Says

   You should ask Edna St. Vincent and ” Love is not all “

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