Need help analyzing two poems! First to analyze both thoroughly gets best answer?

First Fig

My candle burns at both ends;

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh my friends-

It gives a lovely light

I know this is about a temporary good thing

But i'm not sure what the candle is supposed to represent

Second Fig

Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:

Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!

-Edna St. Vincent Millay

Both these poems are supposed to somehow be related to the novel The Great Gatsby. If you could find a connection I would really appreciate it. If not, I'm still grateful for the analysis because I really don't understand them.

Need help analyzing two poems! First to analyze both thoroughly gets best answer?antivirus downloads

First one: A candle burning at both ends gives twice as much light, but lasts half as long, so ''burning your candle at both ends'' was (before electric lights), a common expression for being extravagant, or in this case, for living dangerously. So she's saying ''Yes, I'm living imprudently, but so much more deeply than if I was living carefully.'' This is like saying, ''Live fast, love hard and die young -- you'll eave a beautiful memory,'' (Not advice I endorse, by the way).

The second one simply means that the solid, sustaining things in life are often not the exciting, ''pretty'' things. They're often boring -- even ''ugly.'' Conversely, exciting (pretty) things are often temporary or illusory. For instance, many young people have left the solid life of their town and family to become famous in Hollywood. Then they find out that it was an illusion -- their former life was better, if less exciting.