POETIC INFLUENCES OF TWO POETS

I will discuss two poets who I believe have been influenced by two other poets in the writing of their poems both thematically and as concerns other style similarities that can be observed in the poems. The poets and poems that I will discuss are Edna St. Vincent Millay and her poem entitled "[ I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed]," which I believe was influenced by the poet John Keats and his poem " This living hand;" and the poet Carl Stranburg and his poem "Grass," which I believe was influenced by the poet Archibald MacLeish and his poem "Snowflake." It is my contension that Millay was possibly inspired to write a poem that thematically was the opposite of the poem written by Keats, while maintaining a similarity in use of figures of speech such as metaphore and language use. I also maintain the position that Stranburg was influenced by MacLeish to write a poem that I believe is thematically similar to the poem written by MacLeish while also maintaining similarity in the use of figures of speech in his poem.
I feel that Millay was influenced to write her poem "I Being Born Woman and Distressed" from the poem written by Keats. Both poems were written as dialogues between the protagonists directed at an antagonist. In Keats' poem it described a situation in which the lead character had escaped or survived a murder, manslaughter or accident. He was describing the possible guilt that would or coud have been visited on the antagonist if the protagonist had died. At the end of the poem however it appears that the protagonist is extending the "hand" of friendship to the antagonist as described in the poem:
And thou be conscience-calmed--see here it is--
I hold it towards you.
In the poem written by Millay, she describes a protagonist who is also speaking directly to an antagonist. In this poem, the protagonist (who obviously had some sort of falling-out with a former lover (the antagonist), is telling him that even though she is pysically attracted to him she will be logical and does not consider that fact as a sufficient reason to continue to be friendly with him:
Think not for this, however, the poor treason
Of my sout blood against my saggering brain,
I shall remember you with love, or season
My scorn with pity,--let me make it plain:
I find this frenzy insufficient reason
for conversation when we meet again.
Even though Millay may have written a similar poem where the protagonist is speaking directly to the protagonist, the protagonist in Keats poem attempts to reconcile with the antagonist while the protagonist in Millay's poem does not.
Other similarities include the use of metaphore in both poems, and language used is readily understandable.
In tracing the influence of MacLeish's poem on Stranburg's one can note the thematic similarities. Both poems appear to espouse the notion that life itself can be seen as vain as people, places, things and events that once may have been regarded as important can dissappear and fade-away, forgotten by society with the passage of time. An example of this thematic similarity can be seen from excerpts of both poems:
In MacLeish's poem:
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and le me work--
I am the grass; I cover all.
From Millay's poem:
Will it last? he says.
Is it a masterpiece?
Will generation after generation
Turn with reverence to the page?
Both poems make use of metaphore and language in a similar way.
I believe that it can thus be seen how Millay and Stranburg were possibly influenced in their writing of these poems by MacLeish and Keats.