An Analysis Of Anne Sexton's Freedom To Die

Everyone is vulnerable and susceptible to the usual heartbreak of life. Anne Sexton ' suicide was only one of many who desperately wanted to achieve an unrelenting wave of relief. For these existences, depression is like a war, you either win or die trying (Live or Die). "This is how I want to die"(). Anne Sexton is foretelling her battle with morbid sadness that continues to slowly consume, until the person drowns into a sea of burning anguish."....where one black-haired tree slips up

In literature, themes shape and characterize an author’s writing making each work unique as different points of view are expressed within a writing’s words and sentences. This is the case, for example, of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” Both poems focus on the same theme of death, but while Poe’s poem reflects that death is an atrocious event because of the suffering and struggle that it provokes, Dickinson’s poem reflects that death is humane and that it should not be feared as it is inevitable. The two poems have both similarities and differences, and the themes and characteristics of each poem can be explained by the author’s influences and lives.

In Anne Sexton’s poem “After Auschwitz”, the speaker uses death as a metaphor to show that onlookers were the cause of the persecution of Jews and that men are evil but capable of beauty. Anne Sexton was a confessional poet, often writing about topics that were not embraced and talked about during her time period. One topic that was a painful topic to talk about was the holocaust, which was the persecution and murder of over 6 million Jews in Europe during World War II. Sexton opens up about the Holocaust and how no one is to blame for the death of millions but ourselves. The poem, “After Auschwitz”, was written to call out those who stayed silent during the Holocaust through the use of sound devices, personification, and metaphors.

Elizabeth Bishop’s poem First Death in Nova Scotia follows a small girl who is introduced to the concept of death for the first time through her cousin, Arthur. Even though the narrator is just a child who is experiencing death for this first time, she is extremely perceptive of her surroundings. The details and language the girl uses to describe the situation illustrates the difficulty the girl is having coming to terms with the idea of death, while also confusing her throughout the poem. The important concepts of death, grief, and loss of innocence are conveyed by Bishop through the encounter the girl is having with death. Bishop’s theme in the poem seems to be that death can be extremely sorrowful yet hard to understand and as such, people deal with these feelings in different ways, even children. The narrator, being a small child, naturally uses distractions in her surroundings and her figurative language to start to understand death at the end of the poem.

able to get rid of. At the end of the poem Sexton admits the thoughts of suicide are something you can never get rid of, “and yet she waits for me, year after year” (line 25). Sexton justifies the reasons for her suicide by saying that her thoughts and bad memories will never stop coming back because this has been happening for years and years now there is no going back for Sexton. She leaves us with the last stanza filled with unfinished things. This could be a metaphor for her life that is unfinished because of her death occurrence.

Regardless of race, caste, religion, or age, every human has wondered about the one fact of life that unifies us all: What is death? Both poems, “Death of a Young Son by Drowning” by Margaret Atwood and “Because I could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson share a common subject of death. Using figurative language, both poems illustrate distinct takes on a similar topic.

I saw similarities in the poem “Wanting to Die” and the film Girl interrupted directed by James Mangold. Both characters see suicide as an act of escaping the pain of their lives. ‘Like carpenters they want to know which tools/they never ask why build.” Sexton’s use of simile is indicative of how she views death. She never asks her self why she is obsessed, she just allows herself to be that way. It is as if she has been hypnotised to never question her peculiar desires. She is not interested in receiving help as she just wants to know ‘what tools’ to use to in her attempt to escape life. At first I felt sorry the character didn’t want to help herself but came to understand that there was no point pitying her because she didn’t want to help

I have been her kind. (Sexton, lines 1-7) Here, Sexton is not meaning that she has literally been a witch, but she empathizes with the persecuted women of earlier centuries. When Sexton states that she is “braver at night” and that she has “done her hitch/over the plain houses,” she is verbally expressing that the tenebrosity is her only escape from the judging ocular perceivers of people who lead impeccable, conventional lives in suburbia. (Sexton, lines 3-4).

In the second stanza of the poem the poet presents the reader with a funeral setting. The mourners are all seated, and a service begins. The poet describes this service as being quite intense ("like a Drum (that) Kept beating—beating"). The intensity of the service causes the poet’s mind to go numb. The numbness represents the death of her mind.

In Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death “ (448), the speaker of the poem is a woman who relates about a situation after her death. The speaker personifies death as a polite and considerate gentleman who takes her in a carriage for a romantic journey; however, at the end of this poem, she finishes her expedition realizing that she has died many years ago.

“Because I could not stop for Death-” is the more famous of Dickinson’s works. The poem is her attempt to visualize the process of actually being dead. As a narrative, the unknown Speaker of the poem describes how the literalized manifestation known as Death “kindly stopped of me-”. Death picks the Speaker up in a carriage and they ride away together – “The Carriage held but just Ourselves — And Immortality.” In this way, Death has been compared to both a suitor and a seducer for the speaker. After all, the Speaker did not actually choose to die and was not even contemplating the end of life. Rather, Death chose the Speaker. The suiter/seducer interpretation provides a double-meaning wherein can be viewed as both the natural progression of life and also the destructive violation of it. Immortality is the third person

Two of Emily Dickinson’s poems, “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died” and “Because I could not stop for Death” are both written about life’s stopping point, death. Although the poems are written by the same poet, both poems view death in a different manner. Between the two poems, one views death as having an everlasting life while the other anticipates everlasting life, only to realize it does not exist. While both poems are about death, both poems also illustrate that the outcome of death is a mysterious experience that can only be speculated upon with the anticipation of everlasting life.

Emily Dickinson once said, “Dying is a wild night and a new road.” Some people welcome death with open arms while others cower in fear when confronted in the arms of death. Through the use of ambiguity, metaphors, personification and paradoxes Emily Dickinson still gives readers a sense of vagueness on how she feels about dying. Emily Dickinson inventively expresses the nature of death in the poems, “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280)”, “I Heard a fly Buzz—When I Died—(465)“ and “Because I could not stop for Death—(712)”.

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) and Anne Sexton (1928-1974) both explored similar themes such as tone, structure, and symbolism. Many of their poems were cries for help, which resulted into metal illness, depression, and suicide. In 1958, Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath met, and much to their surprise had a few things in common. They both were fascinated with death and suicide. Both Sexton’s and Plath’s poetry are considered as confessional poetry in which they were very honest, depressed, and had suicidal or homicidal tendencies. Sylvia and Anne’s views on what happened in their life and on independence, are what nearly separates them from other confessional poets. Sexton and Plath’s poetry range over a variety of topics such as death, suicide, rage, and mourning. They both utilize a convincing use of symbolism, deep image, metaphors, and soul-searching. Plath’s “The Colossus”, “Full Fathom Five”, “Daddy”, and Sexton’s “And one for My Dame” and “All My Pretty Ones”, are very enraged and different feminist perspectives, giving different views on the relationships with a father and a husband.

In the lines “still-born, they don’t always die, / but dazzled, they can’t forget a drug so sweet”, Sexton describes how failed suicide attempts can affect the mind by explaining how it tends to leave the victim fascinated in awe after one’s close encounter with death (646). A suicidal person’s first confrontation with death can be closely paralleled with one’s first encounter with a highly addictive drug. Most commonly, this sort of encounter leads one into a sort of curious state of mind. Like a suicidal person, it leaves them in a position where the idea of relapse in both cases can occur. Sexton then follows up with the line, “that even children would look on and smile” as a means of symbolically labeling the encounter with this “drug” as an innocent one (646). The innocence that is described in this context is a very contrasting sort of comparison, which supports the morose tone of this poem even further. It leaves the reader thinking that the new suicidal thinker, like the first time drug user, is like an innocent victimized child—unknowing but open to possibilities.