“What shall I give my children?” and “I Shall Forget You Presently, my dear” are both very different poems. Brooks’s sonnet feels more serious. The speaker expresses deficiency in their abilities. They say that they “lack access” to their abilities, and that “grief nor love shall be enough” to give her children what they need. They are also a bit shameful towards their children who aren’t quite aesthetically up to snuff, describing them as their “sweetest lepers.”
Millay’s poem, on the other hand, exudes a sense of confidence and cool detachment. The speaker knows what they can give to the object of their affection—a short love affair.
What they have in common is that they both admit to some sort of deficiency. The speaker in Brooks’s poem has talent. They say they have “mode, design, device” in their hands but is unable to tap into it. Millay’s speaker admits that they “would indeed that love were longer-lived”, but is still adamant that love cannot, and will not, persist.
The problems of Millay’s speaker feels much more modern compared to Brooks’s poem. The speaker is bold, confident, a little snarky, and rebellious. Brooks’s poem is harder to place in a single point of time. Part of it could be the language Brooks uses. Some of the words she uses like “velour,” “quasi,” “ratify,” feel more formal, which could point to it being an older poem.
Brooks’s concerns about womanhood are not that different from the concerns of the other poems in this unit. If read as a meta-poem, I argue that Millay’s poem could possibly also be about creating. When it comes to concerns of motherhood, Brooks is also not alone. Johnson’s poem “Little Son” also speaks to the strain of child rearing. “I Sit & Sew” is similar, concerning things of the domestic sphere. Parker may be the outlier here. “The Red Dress” feels frivolous compared to the others. Overall, Brooks fits in quite nicely with the other poems in the unit.