"I Forgot In Camelot The Man I Loved In Rome"
Last Updated on January 19, 2017, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 206
Context: In a letter to the Editor-in-chief of Harper and Brothers, dated 1931, Miss Millay included a copy of the "Fugitive" which she reproduced from memory, having written the poem at least thirteen years earlier and having been indifferent to its publication, although it had appeared in 1919 in a magazine. The lines quoted below are from the recollected version of 1931. The poem conveys the spirit and a major theme of Miss Millay's early poetry. The spirit of liberation and independence is here. Her bid for noncommittal relationships is essentially a part of her significant role in the spiritual and moral revolt of the 1920's. Her escape from serious, permanent commitments is dependent upon a spatial freedom. She thanks God that "the world is wide" because she needs only to change locations to break present ties. By going to Camelot she forgot the man she loved in Rome. In Kensington she forgot the man she loved in Kew. Presumably addressing a present lover, she says: "And there must be a place for me/ To think no more of you."
The first verse reads:
Thanks be to God the world is wide,
And I am going far from home,
For I forgot in Camelot
The man I loved in Rome. . . .
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