However, this term can take on various meanings. It could be referring to some sort of fight or struggle to survive, as well as something fighting to kill a person. In the same sense as the dark interpretations of such language is the overall destruction of this poem. Millay is writing about topics such as death, lung disease, and physical pain in a poem about love. This strikes me as being somewhat unusual.
People don t usually associate such dark things with love.
This leads me to believe that Millay s interpretation of love was not a typical one. Millay was very effective, in my opinion, at gaining the favor of readers through her refusal to give up love. After saying that love is something that people do not need in order to survive, she then turns the poem around and says that love from another person is such a precious, valuable thing, that she would not even consider giving it up, even in the midst of personal pain. Millay may have even been trying to convince herself that love was a daily necessity and something worth not giving up on. Everything Millay says about love in this poem is basically true.