What is the form and meaning of the poem, "I will put chaos into fourteen lines" by Edna Millay?

Question

The poem is an Italian Sonnet, and I was needing some help possibly a couple of paragraphs describing the structure and meaning of the poem:



I will put Chaos into fourteen lines
And keep him there; and let him thence escape
If he be lucky; let him twist, and ape
Flood, fire, and demon--his adroit designs
Will strain to nothing in the strict confines
Of this sweet Order, where, in pious rape,
I hold his essence and amorphous shape,
Till he with Order mingles and combines.
Past are the hours, the years, of our duress,
His arrogance, our awful servitude:
I have him. He is nothing more nor less
Than something simple not yet understood;
I shall not even force him to confess;
Or answer. I will only make him good.

Answer 1

Sounds like you want someone to do your homework for you! LOL

Well, you've correctly analyzed that it's an Italian sonnet.

As far as the meaning, she was talking about the artistic struggle, and how order and chaos need to be resolved in it. Something too orderly is stiff and not interesting. Something too chaotic is too hard to grasp and wild. There was the beginnings of revolt against the strict conventions of sonnets and other poetic forms beginning, and she seems to be making the point that order/structure is an important part of the creative process.

Answer 2

Fourteen Lines

Answer 3

Some years back I kept a Praying Mantis as a pet, and they only eat live food! Consequently, I acquired the skill of GENTLY capturing live flies in flight, or off any surface, so that I could feed my Mantis uninjured and active prey. Most moving incident was late one night when on arrival home I found my Mantis shedding its skin. I watched, enthralled, for over an hour and I shall never forget seeing my Mantis gradually extend and spread its brand new rainbow-shimmering wings. Next day I released it onto a grapevine in my garden, the same garden in which I subsequently found a swarm of very tiny, recently hatched mantids! They are the cutest little creatures you could ever imagine.