Anne Sexton : Life into Art :: Literature Poetry Papers

Anne sexton Life into Art A story, a story(Let it go. Let it come.)I was stamped out desire a Plymouth fender into this world.First came the cribwith its glacial bars.Then dolls and the devotion to their plastic mouths.Then there was school, the little straight rows of chairs,blotting my name over and over,but submarine all the time,a stranger whose elbows wouldnt work.Then there was livingwith its cruel housesand people who seldom touched -though touch is all-but I grew,like a pig in a trenchcoat I grew,and then there were many strange apparitions,the nagging rain, the sun turning into poisonand all of that, saws working through my heart,but I grew, I grew,and God was there like an island I had not rowed to,still ignorant of Him, my arms and my legs worked,and I grew, I grew,I wore rubies and bought tomatoesand now, in my middle age,about nineteen in the head Id say,I am rowing, I am rowingthough the oarlocks stick and are gray-hairedand the sea blinks and rollslike a worried eyeball,but I am rowing, I am rowing, though the wind pushes me backand I manage that that island will not be perfect,it will have the flaws of life,the absurdities of the dinner table,but there will be a doorand I will pay itand I will get rid of the rat inside of me,the gnawing pestilential rat.God will take it was his two handsand embrace it.As the African saysThis is my tale which I have told,if it be sweet, if it be not sweet,take somewhere else and let some return to me.This story ends with me still rowing.- Rowing by Anne Sexton, from The Awful Rowing Towards God Introduction I chose to start this paper by quoting an entire poem of Anne Sextons. Why? Because no one told the story of Anne Sextons life as often or as well as Anne Sexton herself. Over and over she wrote, recounted, and recast her struggles with madness, her love affairs, her joys and griefs in parenting, and her religious quests. For example, Rowing touches upon the acquire for Anne to tell stories about hers elf, her longing for connection with others, her mental problems, and her searching for God - one could not ask for a better introduction to the world of Anne Sexton.Sexton was a pioneer. As member of the confessional school of poetry that arose in America in the early 60s, she helped put an emphasis in American culture on revelation that continues today.