Compare the style of this poem to Victorian poetry, such as that by Robert Browning, Edward Lear, Matthew Arnold, or Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Consider differences in style, expression of emotion, and tone and write a Victorian version of Millay's poem.

"Wild Swans" is one of many poems that associate human emotion with birds. Other examples include Gerard Manley Hopkins's "The Windhover," John Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale," Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," and William Butler Yeats's "The Wild Swans at Coole." Read at least three other poems about birds and write an essay explaining why poets often use bird imagery to explore or describe human emotion.

Read Millay's "Renascence" or "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver," which are considered her crowning achievements in poetry. Write a review of the poem expressing your opinion of it and using as many specific references to the...