ABSTRACT
The circumstances surrounding the publication of Edna St. Vincent Millay's narrative poem "Renascence" describe a fantastic narrative of adolescent artistic triumph. When Millay finished the poem in 1912, she was a 20-year-old woman living in Camden, Maine, with no immediate means for achieving her fervent desire to be a well-published poet. "Renascence" was not her first publishing venture; she had published rather extensively in the popular children's magazine St. Nicholas throughout her youth. Having outgrown the magazine's age limit for contributors and won its most coveted literary prize, Millay published nothing for two years and made no plans to leave Maine or attend college.
