Summary
In the poem, the speaker describes her intense lifestyle by comparing it to a candle burning at both ends. The candle of her life will burn out, not even lasting the night, but this is not presented as a problem (at least to her). Addressing both her enemies and her friends, the speaker points out the beauty of her own light. The poem ends with this exclamatory sentiment.
Analysis
The speaker in "First Fig" uses the idiom of a candle burning at both ends to describe her passionate and intense lifestyle. The title, "First Fig," sets up the entire rest of the collection (called A Few Figs From Thistles). The poet argues here that one should enjoy the present moment of one's life like a delicious fruit, without worrying about how brief the moment may be. Consisting of just one quatrain written in common meter, the form of the poem reflects its content. The lines are written in iambic pentameter, alternate between eight and six syllables, and follow a rhyme scheme of ABAB. Common meter is used for ballads and hymns, which gives this poem a musical and reverential quality that juxtaposes the potentially heavy topic of death. However, rather than express a fear of death, the speaker asserts the beauty of her own light.
Cutting right to the chase, the first line reads, "My candle burns at both ends." It is not clear exactly what aspect of the speaker's life she is talking about, but the idiom refers to an inevitable burnout resulting from exhaustion. Edna St. Vincent Millay was known to party hard, and in later years she became addicted to drugs and alcohol. The spondee (two stressed syllables) at the end of the line shows that the meter is not closely followed. This imperfection places emphasis on the image of the burning candle, as does the alliteration of the "b" sound in the words "burns" and "both."
In the second line, the speaker states that her candle will not last the night (due to the speed at which it is burning from both ends). This situates the poem at nighttime, showing that the speaker means to live her fleeting yet brilliant life to the extent that she can in the course of a single night. This helps portray the speaker as a nonconformist because instead of spending the night sleeping, she is either partying or working. The shortness of this poem contributes to its intensity, and the first two lines already establish the poem's drama.
In the third line, the speaker addresses both her friends and her foes. The alliteration of the "m" and "f" sounds in "my friends" and "my foes" uses repetition to place the speaker's friends and enemies in the same grouping. Common meter can sometimes have a conversational quality due to the variation in line length, and this particular line clarifies that the speaker is addressing everyone in her life. The dash at the end of the line creates a pause before the speaker imparts the poem's main point in the following line.
The final line of the poem is an exclamation of how lovely the speaker's light is. Again, the use of alliteration places emphasis on the image of the burning candle, and the liquid "l" sound contributes to the beauty of the image. Despite what anyone else may think of the speaker (the word "foes" implies that she has critics), she celebrates herself in this poem.
