Ebb

Published in 1922, Millay’s lyric poem appears in the context of Modernism. This literary movement occurred in the early 1900s, and it emphasized the splintered nature of the world. Modernists weren’t interested in providing a romantic, cohesive representation of society but focused on how broken and alienating it could be. Modernist works like Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” (1913) and T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922) reveal the strange and isolating features of modern life. In "Ebb," the sea alienates Millay's speaker from her heart because it takes control of its shape and condition. It's the sea that makes the speaker's heart small and then leaves it dry. Moreover, the emphasis on death and edges advances the Modernist traits of "Ebb" as these terms suggest the fractious, precariousness of a technologically-advanced society.

Imagism was another literary movement of the early 1900s. This movement—practiced by poets like Pound, Amy Lowell, and William Carlos Williams—believed that poetry should convey a sharp, concise picture. Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” is an example of Modernism and Imagism because it portrays a crisp image of a subway station in Paris. Using the simile device, Millay presents a taut portrait of her speaker’s heart in “Ebb.” The reader can imagine what the speaker’s heart looks like due to keen, precise words such as "ledge” (Line 3), "little” (Line 4), and "pool" (Line 6).

Neither Imagists nor Modernists worried too much about sound. They weren’t concerned with melody, or, better put, they tended to use words that could make their poems sound discordant or unpleasant. The lilting sound of “Ebb” removes it from the context of early-20th century poetry and places it in a period before Millay—a time when poets, regardless of the subject matter, strived to make their poems sound pleasing to the ear. For example, even when William Blake writes about the frightening creature in “The Tyger” (1794), he maintains a mellifluous sound.