Tavern By Edna St. Vincent Millay: Explained the Easiest Way!

Tavern by Edna St. Vincent Millay analysis featuring the poet

Out of the many poems written by Edna St. Vincent Millay, most have a melancholic tone to them. But the poem “Tavern” by Edna St. Vincent Millay deals with a different type of melancholic tone; it is about alleviating someone’s distress. 

Millay writes about sorrow and hopelessness with the precision and accuracy of someone who has known it like the back of their hands. In “Tavern,” she talks about how she uses her experience in a better, helpful way. 

This poem, like all the other poems by Millay, is a short and simple one, but it is dripping with heavy metaphors and imagery that makes this poem graciously layered and interesting. Let’s take a look at the poem and then at the analysis. 

Tavern by Edna St. Vincent Millay

I'll keep a little tavern
   Below the high hill's crest,
Wherein all grey-eyed people
   May set them down and rest.

There shall be plates a-plenty,
   And mugs to melt the chill
Of all the grey-eyed people
   Who happen up the hill.

There sound will sleep the traveller,
   And dream his journey's end,
But I will rouse at midnight
   The falling fire to tend.

Aye, 'tis a curious fancy—
   But all the good I know
Was taught me out of two grey eyes
   A long time ago.

Meaning and Analysis

The poem is so full of meaning that we can take two different ones; one is the metaphorical meaning and the other is the literal meaning. Both are equally interesting. Let’s look at the literal meaning first. 

The Literal Meaning

While this might be unlikely, perhaps Millay wants to actually open a place that would provide shelter and food to the wearisome travelers who are fighting the detrimental effects of age. 

I’ll keep a little tavern

 Below the high hill’s crest,

Wherein all grey-eyed people

 May set them down and rest.

Millay wants to provide them with a place where they can sit and relax before or after their journey. But she talks about grey-eyed people. Perhaps this is a reference to people with cataracts that come with old age.

There shall be plates a-plenty,

 And mugs to melt the chill

Of all the grey-eyed people

 Who happen up the hill.

She says that this play will provide them with food and warm drinks that would help them get warm. The people who may have wandered around the hill will also be welcomed.

No matter who these people are, as long as they are in need of a roof and warmth, they will be welcomed. But again, she mentions that they are “gray-eyed people.”

here sound will sleep the traveller,

 And dream his journey’s end,

But I will rouse at midnight

 The falling fire to tend.

The third stanza is quite an interesting one. Millay says that people can also sleep here with comfort and dream about their journey’s end. And this is where the literal meaning of the poem starts to crumble.

The third stanza is chock-full of metaphors, making it hard to take it literally. But let us suspend all that for a second and take everything at face value.

Millay says that she will wake up at midnight to ensure that the fire is still burning to provide warmth and comfort to the weary and sleeping traveler. 

Aye, ’tis a curious fancy—

 But all the good I know

Was taught me out of two grey eyes

 A long time ago.

The final stanza talks about the reason why Millay wants to do all this. She says that she is aware of how different this desire is. She knows that people will find it bizarre as well. 

But then she supplements it by saying that it is also a good thing to do and it was taught to her by someone with gray eyes a long time ago. 

Perhaps she is talking about some elderly person or someone very old who was in need of something very similar to this but couldn’t find it. 

So to ensure that no one else who needs a resting place shall ever be without a roof. It is something she wants to do. 

This interpretation was done by taking the poem literally. But what do we get once we start looking at it metaphorically? There is no actual “tavern” that the poet wants to build. 

Let’s look at the metaphorical meaning and interpretation of the poem. 

Metaphorical (and Perhaps the Actual) Meaning

Maybe the “tavern” the poet is talking about is something that can provide a warm place to the heart of a distressed person. Maybe the “tavern” is her poetry that anyone can read and find comfort in the lines. 

If we look at the poem in this way, the poem starts making more sense and gets a universal appeal. It reveals the reason why the poet wants to create poems or the motive behind her efforts. 

So let’s put on our metaphorical glasses and look at the poem again to find something deeper, something different. 

I’ll keep a little tavern

 Below the high hill’s crest,

Wherein all grey-eyed people

 May set them down and rest.

The first stanza is conveying that the poet will provide comfort below the high hill’s crest to all the people whose eyes have turned “gray.” There are two metaphors used here.

“High hill’s crest” indicates a difficult journey of an upward slope. The term “gray eyes’ ‘ here means people who are somewhat lost or do not have a general direction of where they are going. 

There shall be plates a-plenty,

 And mugs to melt the chill

Of all the grey-eyed people

 Who happen up the hill.

Even the people who did not intend to take this journey. The line “who happens up the hill” indicates that meaning. But she will provide comfort to these people as well. 

There will be enough to “eat” and the warm “mugs” will melt away the coldness. Metaphorically, it means that she will ensure that these “lost” people feel warmth and comfort. 

There sound will sleep the traveller,

 And dream his journey’s end,

But I will rouse at midnight

 The falling fire to tend.

As mentioned before, this line is all about metaphors. The “traveler” here is the person who is struggling with the journey. A moment of pause would make his dream of this painful journey end. 

But then the poet wrote something even more intriguing and metaphorical. She says that while others will sleep, she will wake up at midnight to reignite the falling fire. 

This line shows that even if she has to go through difficulties, she will not let the warmth from her work die down. No matter what, she will keep the fire burning. She will keep providing comfort. 

Aye, ’tis a curious fancy—

 But all the good I know

Was taught me out of two grey eyes

 A long time ago.

She realizes that many people will find this desire of the speaker to be intriguing and even confusing. This desire of helping these “lost” people. Why would she suffer and do the hard work of making them feel comfortable? 

But then she explains why she has this peculiar desire. She says that everything good that she knows is by someone with these gray eyes. This could be an adult, a person in pain, or perhaps someone who is in a lot of sorrow. 

We do not know who this person was, but since everything good the poet knows was taught to her by this “gray-eyed” person, she would like to return the favor in this way. 

The Essence of the Poem

So which meaning amongst the two is the real one? Whichever you feel connects to you the most. That was the whole point of the poem. The poem is meant to comfort people.

So whether this poem is about old people who need help or just people who are lost in life and are looking for some guidance or comfort, the message of the poem remains the same at the core. 

The works of Edna St. Vincent Millay provide comfort to people whether they need help physically or mentally, literally or metaphorically. 

Stay a Bit Longer?

Read more poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay: