In the Sonnet by Millay, I think the character is a women. I think this because she said "... what arms have lain under my head till morning..." normally the woman will lay on the man at night. I think the character had many relationships in the past. When she said "And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain For unremembered lads that not again Will turn to me at midnight with a cry. Thus in winter stands the lonely tree...", She is referring to the men that she was with in the past. As time goes on, it appears that she is getting older and she is now lonely and she can't remember them.
In Shakespeare's Sonnet I believe he is simply saying what love it, and what it is not. He just describes in a very different way. For example when he said "Love is not fool's time, though rosy lips and cheeks" I think when he said Fool's time, I think he probably meant that love is not a game. and when he said said though rosy lips and cheeks, he is saying that love is beautiful. I think this because rosy lips and cheeks paints the image of a women, and with the descriptions given of her one may get the idea that she is beautiful.
Good reading of Millay's sonnet. If the speaker in Millay's sonnet is getting older and is lonely, how does this compare with the line from Shakespeare's sonnet you quoted and one that follows which complete the thought " Love is not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks/ Within his bending sickle's compass come" (9-10)?
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