The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Millay, Edna St. Vincent. "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed." Collected Poems (Harper Perennial, 2011).

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem from which the quotations are taken.

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet and playwright during the first half of the twentieth century. She is well-known for her contributions to the feminist movement in New York City during the Roaring Twenties, and she was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923. During World War II, Millay wrote in favor of the war effort and expressed a strong stance against the rise of fascism, despite having been a vocal pacifist during World War I. She was especially critical of capitalism, instead championing socialist ideas but refusing to identify as a communist. When she was not writing under her real name, Millay also wrote mass market popular fiction under the pseudonym Nancy Boyd.

"What Lips My Lips Have Kissed" is a sonnet about a woman who cannot remember the myriad of lovers who have come to her bed. She argues that despite the fact that she cannot remember their names or specific details about their encounters, she is haunted by their absence now as she reflects on her past. The poem champions female sexuality and mourns lost love while also gesturing toward themes like time, youth, and old age.