Millay’s speaker is mourning someone and rejects the old reassurance that time eases pain. She misses him in ordinary moments—rain, the tide, melting snow, last year’s leaves burning—because the world moves on but her love and memories do not. The pain sits heaped on her heart, as fresh as ever. Certain places are unbearable because they are so full of him, yet even when she finds a quiet spot with no trace of his presence, she cannot rest. Instead, she says aloud that no memory of him exists there—and immediately feels the loss all over again. The poem creates a trapped, sorrowful mood: grief follows her everywhere, even into the places meant to feel safe.
Sonnets 2 — Summary
Time does not bring relief; you all have lied Who told me time would ease me of my pain! I miss him in the weeping of the rain; I want him at the shrinking of the tide; The old snows melt from every mountain-side, And last year's leaves are smoke in every lane; But last year's bitter loving must remain Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide!
There are a hundred places where I fear To go,--so with his memory they brim! And entering with relief some quiet place Where never fell his foot or shone his face I say, "There is no memory of him here!" And so stand stricken, so remembering him!