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Ryan McGee

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In Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem “Euclid Alone Has Looked on Beauty Bare,” we are given a new acuity to the meaning of true or “bare” beauty in the sense that the onset of Euclid’s beautiful mathematical work is parallel to the second coming of Christ. We must begin our anatomization of this poem by asking ourselves exactly, “Who is Euclid?” and “What is beauty?” Besides assuming that most people will recognize him as one of the most brilliant mathematicians of all time, Millay’s poem commences by explicitly setting Euclid on a level of intellectual insight above the rest of mankind. It is simply stated that he “alone” has looked on “Beauty bare” – conceivably the core phrase of the poem. We as readers first notice the capitalization of the word “Beauty,” and immediately realize that the author has for some reason intended to set that word as a proper noun. Further reading of the poem reveals the initially mysterious word “her”- mysterious because we do not absolutely

Ryan McGee R M Normal.dotm Ryan McGee 3 339 2003-10-06T20:35:00Z 2009-02-18T21:30:00Z 2009-02-18T21:34:00Z 1 1131 6450 none 53 12 7921 12.0 Clean Clean false 0 0 false false false false Ryan McGee A Mathematical Jesus: An Explication of Edna St. Vincent Millay�s �Euclid Alone Has Looked on Beauty Bare� In Edna St. Vincent Millay�s poem �Euclid Alone Has Looked on Beauty Bare,� we are given a new acuity to the meaning of true or �bare� beauty in the sense that the onset of Euclid�s beautiful mathematical work is parallel to the second coming of Christ. We must begin our anatomization of this po

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