The Beauty of Cynicism
Anne Sexton was a contemporary poet whose work surpassed many others. She
created a varied repertoire that elicits a specifically emotional response in
the reader. Her earlier work seems to have been tied directly with traditional
form, but her later and less popular work bore the burden of being too
innovative for her time. She was linked to the class of poetry called "Confessionalism,"
despite her attempts to break free of this classification. She, in contrast to
others who were placed in this class of poets, continually changed her themes
and topics to match her growth as a human being. She did not allow her work to
be tied down by those who would read it. By addressing topics that may have been
considered taboo for her time, she created a readership of people that
appreciated her cruel honesty and blunt style.
In the first poems that she wrote, Sexton followed a relatively formal and
traditional style, focusing on form and rhyme. A clear representation of her
rhyme and meter can be seen in her poem entitled "The Starry Night,"
as she wrote, "The town does not exist/ except where one black-haired tree
slips/ up like a drowned woman in the hot sky./ The town is silent./ The night
boils with eleven stars./ O starry night! This is how/ I want to die" (Rosenthall
70 lines 1-6). As her work progressed, however, she spent less time on form.
Rather, she seemed more interested in simply getting her point across as sharply
as possible. Many critics seem to have disapproved of this get-it-all-out style,
criticizing that the emotion in her poems was so raw that it is unbelievable.
Regarding Sexton's "Love Poems," Mona Van Duyn stated that,
Love Poems is not sentimental, not trivial, it is simply not believable.
The poems have little to do with believable love, having none of love's
privacy and therefore too frequently repelling the reader; they have as little
to do with believable sexuality as an act of intercourse performed onstage for
an audience. Because neither revulsion nor amusement is a fair response to a
poet with this much talent, one must, for the sake of the poet and the poems,
totally supress the word "confessional" and substitute the word
"fictional." (Van Duyn 391)
By having none of the "privacy" that Van Duyn spoke of, Sexton
seemed to have been touching on aspects of love that make one extremely
uncomfortable. She has become famous for this ability to make the reader cringe.
Where many poets get caught up in the idealism of love, Sexton focused on the
realism and hardships that represent honest life experiences-as in her poem
entitled "Cinderella," which closes with: Cinderella and the prince/
lived, they say, hapily ever after,/ like two dolls in a museum case/ never
bothered by diapers or dust,/ never arguing over the timing of an egg,/ never
telling the same story twice,/ never getting a middle-aged spread,/ their
darling smiles pasted on for eternity... (Young 256) Perhaps this honesty, or
sarcasm about the realities of life, made it possible to address topics that
other poets would not dream of touching--such as war, incest, murder, and
feminine issues. Perhaps this honesty allowed her to be both political and
personal at the same time.
Having been a teenager throughout WWII, and experiencing the Korean War
through her husband's service in the military, Sexton had personal fuel for some
of her more political work. These poems, specifically "After
Auschwitz," and "The Firebombers," do not stand up for the good
of our nation or that of others, for that matter. They primarily represent the
grotesque nature of war by creating harsh visual images and piercing emotions.
In "After Auschwitz," Sexton spoke of the flaws of mankind by
proclaiming his evil nature and that he does not deserve to live. "Man is
evil,/ I say aloud./ Man is a flower/ That should be burnt,/ I say aloud./ Man/
Is a bird full of mud,/ I say aloud" (Tripod lines 11-18) gives the reader
this impression of how horribly she felt toward mankind in response to WWII. Her
cynical tone and aggressive voice create a level of discomfort in the reader.
After proclaiming man's flaws, she concluded this poem with "I beg the lord
not to hear" (line 33). While reading this poem, one finds herself
continually cringing at the images that Sexton created, "each Nazi/ took,
at 8:00 AM., a baby/ and sauteed him for breakfast/ in his frying pan"
(lines 4-8).
Although this poem is so complete in its gruesome images, what may be perhaps
a little more surprising is her poem entitled "Firebombers" because of
the stance that she took against America. Oddly enough, she included herself in
the poem by saying about America that, "We are America./ We are the coffin
fillers./ We are the grocers of death./ We pack them in crates like
cauliflower" (Tripod lines 1-4). Sexton then related to the children and
women who are inevitably victims of war, by saying, "The bomb opens like a
shoebox./ And the child?/ The child is certainly not yawning./ Ant the woman?/
The woman is bathing her heart" (lines 5-9). The next lines speak of why
this woman was "bathing her heart." "It has been torn out of her/
and because it is burnt/ and as a last act/ she is rinsing it off in the river./
This is the death market" (lines 10-14). This is in reference to the
emotional effects of war. The fact that this woman's heart has been torn out
represents the pain and anguish that is felt upon a loss. The fact that her
heart has been burned is a reflection of the physical results of warfare.
Although the poem seems to have been written aggressively against war, not
until the end of the poem is this point shot directly at the reader. By
completing the poem with, "America/ where are your credentials" (lines
15-16), Sexton seems to have claimed that America is not qualified to make such
grave decisions regarding war and the lives of other human beings. How can one
argue that? We are one of the most excessive countries in the world, consuming
and wasting more than many other nations combined. Sexton may have called on
this in her poem.
Many critics relate Sexton's work to that of Sylvia Plath, whose work is also
classified as "confessional." Although there is no evidence that the
two women actually competed with each other's writing, their work is continually
pitted together by critics. Perhaps this relationship stems from the fact that
the two spent time together in the same mental facility, while being influenced
by similar people. However, the opinions on relating the two seem to vary from
critic to critic. Plath's work is frequently noted as being more structured and
formal. In comparing the two, Robert Mazocco gave a relatively disappointing
review of Sexton's work in comparison to Plath's, saying that:
Anne Sexton often wrote of the cruelty of life and the cruelty of people,
particularly the ungiving nature of her parents, yet unlike Sylvia Plath she
seems always to have been asking to be forgiven. Plath had a colder heart,
perhaps, but wrote fiercer, purer poetry-was indeed a genius. Sylvia Plath
refused to forgive the world and there's always something triumphant about
that refusal. Plath is always, as she says, 'ready for enormity,' crossing the
frontier, with no carols to be sung, no Whitmanian salutations to accompany
the hearse-and no one has to honor her. Faithful to her demons, she seems, in
the end, a conqueror, victorious (Mazzoco 493).
Although Sexton may not have been as directly "fierce" as Plath,
there is still something to be said for the manner in which Sexton uses irony
and cynicism to drive her points. The primary difference between the two can be
seen in Plath's poem entitled, "Lady Lazarus," which is obviously less
direct than Sexton's later work. Plath wrote this poem with a similar theme to
Sexton's "After Auschwitz." However, her language is more figurative;
"A sort of walking miracle, my skin/ Bright as a Nazi lampshade,/ My right
foot/ A paperweight" (Plath 308 lines 4-7). Plath's language is also less
offensive to the average reader. She definitely had a point to make, but she
made it artfully, as opposed to Sexton's method of force.
In contrast to Plath, however, Adrienne Rich's style of imagery compares
closely to Sexton's. Rich, like Sexton used direct language to create an image
in the mind of the reader. Some of her poetry also followed a relatively
narrative style similar to that used by Sexton in her
"Transformations" poems. This narration style opens Rich's poem,
"Women:" "My three sisters are sitting/ on rocks of black
obsidian./ For the first time, in this light, I can see who they are" (Rich
320). One can picture the women sitting on midnight black stones. Like Sexton,
Rich's word choice is key to the imagery that she created.
No matter the difference between Sylvia Plath's work, Adrienne Rich, and Anne
Sexton's... No matter the similarities in classification, whether desired or
not... No matter the harsh criticism, Anne Sexton's work became popular because
of the forceful manner in which she was able to address topics that made the
average reader squirm. Much of this ability may have been related to the fact
that Sexton experienced much tragedy in her life, from the death of her parents
to her own ovarectomy. Although she frequently wrote from her experiences, hence
the classification of "confessional," and these experiences affected
her work; it would not be fair to the bold political stances she took to
discount them simply because of her life. One may, also, spend time focusing on
the "errors" of Sexton's work. Or, one may spend that same time,
better used, realizing the incredible courage that it must have taken to address
issues for what they were, without the cover of eloquent language. Michael Lally,
in reference to this courage stated that Sexton's poems:
...rely on the kind of surrealist mixing of metaphors and unlikely
juxtaposition that the French-and Spanish-speaking poets perfected...When this
works, coupled with the insistent rhythms of her short lines and littanylike
lists, the poems aren't easy to ignore. When the images are weak...the poems
are still often hard to ignore (Lally 493).
This is the truth. No matter how good or bad her poems are according to
poetic tradition, one still finds it nearly impossible to miss the points of
Sexton's work.
What Anne Sexton accomplished by writing so graphically, so satirically, is
to create an intense feeling in the reader that change is necessary. Many
writers speak of how the world should be flowery and beautiful, but the simple
explanation of this beauty gives the reader a sense of cathartic liberation.
Sexton's poetry liberates no one. She was not even so kind as to write in
acceptable form that the critics would have approved of. Her meter seems to have
frequently been off, rhyme scheme in her later work is nonexistent. Everything
about her poetry, aesthetically, rhythmically, verbally seems to have been
created to offend the reader. This offense makes it brilliant. There is no
catharsis. The only way for the reader to feel better is to directly change her
life. Is this the effect that Sexton was looking for? Undoubtedly, yes.
Works Cited
Lally, Michael. "A Dark and Desperate Vision." Contemporary
Literary Criticism. Ed.
Carolyn Riley and Barbara Harte. Detroit: Gale Research Company, Book Tower,
1974. Vol. CLC 6. 493-494.
Mazocco, Robert. The New York Review of Books. Contemporary Literary
Criticism.
Ed. Carolyn Riley and Barbara Harte. Detroit: Gale Research Company, Book Tower,
1974. Vol. CLC 6. 493.
Plath, Sylvia. "Lady Lazarus." An Introduction to Poetry.
Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana
Goia. New York: Longman, 2002. 308.
Rosenthall, M.L. "Anne Sexton and Confessional Poetry." Anne
Sexton: Telling the
Tale. Ed. Steven E. Colburn. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1988.
65-87.
Rich, Adrienne. "Women." An Introduction to Poetry. Ed. X.J.
Kennedy and Dana
Goia. New York: Longman, 2002. 320.
Tripod. "The Complete Works of Anne Sexton." Independant website.
May 14, 1998.
May 10, 2002. < http://www.members.tripod.com/~toryn/index.html >
Van Duyn, Mona. "Seven Women." Contemporary Literary Criticism.
Ed. Carolyn
Riley and Barbara Harte. Detroit: Gale Research Company, Book Tower, 1974. Vol.
CLC 2. 391.
Young, Vernon. "Review of Transformations." Anne Sexton: Telling
the
Tale. Ed. Steven E. Colburn. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1988.
255-262.
Postscript
This essay was an interesting assignment. I learned so much from the research
that I did. One would not realize that there is so much information on a poet,
if she had not taken the time to find out. Anne Sexton was a unique poet, and I
am happy to have been able to research her work. The resources at the library
came in handy. I found them more useful than the internet sources.
I had a little trouble coming up with the second poet to compare to, but Rich
was a perfect fit. Thanks for the idea. I used some of the material that I had
for my presentation, and am glad that this final was not due until afterward,
because of that fact. Some of the better concepts actually came from my
presentation, while preparing for it.
I don't think that I changed this work too much through process, but added
what seemed appropriate to fill certain holes in argument. I appreciated the
teacher critique because it helped me to see where these holes were.
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