This anxiety is reinforced by the heat of the poem, expressed several times via the 'boiling' stars, or the 'hot sky'. Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh has risen to the peak of artistic achievements. Overall, both Van Gogh and Sexton strategically use the application of color and imagery to characterize the dark parts of the painting as being reminiscent of death. The stars look as though they are on fire and they are moving as though they were alive, contrasting with the sleepy town below them. Van Gogh may be as well known for his impetuous temperament as he is for his artistic ability. As we read along, we realize that the only occasion in which the reader perhaps, Sexton as well seeks happiness is on a beautiful, starry night as she describes in the poem.
Consider the length of her lines; aside from Van Gogh's quotation, which acts as a kind of introduction and empathetic nod, the longest line is nine words long, with each stanza bulging at the middle - thus evoking interesting tides of pacing that start off short and blunt, and grow into more complex sentences, which then subside once more. Anne Sexton talks a lot about darkness, silence, and emptiness. Death is made present in the form of 'The old unseen serpent', which, 'swallows up the stars. Confessional poetry itself was a reaction to what Robert Lowell refers to as the 'tranquillised Fifties', a time when formal, elegant poetic style was dominant in literary circles. In my opinion she was the best because she spoke my language and no in tongues. The brightest star with the white halo actually Venus on the left balances off the dark hill on the right edge of the composition.
She paints them to be dumb-founded and have a permanent blonde complex. I would say that there are two sources to thank for somewhat of a cheeky soft side for poetry. Sexton has a unique way of writing. This pattern is repeated by secondary elements in the opposite direction. The opening of the poem is one of creativity. What is the purpose of the moon imagery in the poem? It can be achieved by repeating shapes, colors, and the alternating of lights and darks. This particular description really struck me.
In the beginning, the first stanza starts out slow, setting the scene and giving the reader a feel for what is going to happen. Seen in the painting are eleven stars and one radiant moon, the tree creeping into the sky is meant to have the viewers gaze down to the small town which is being illuminated by this light. Is she making a connection to Van Gogh and his own idiosyncrasies? Her strong feelings of anger, grief, and love. When looking at the painting, the town is one thing that is does not catch the eye immediately. Google YouTube Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. Not many poets would write about their actual problems and personal situations as Anne Sexton did in this poem.
While Kayo was serving in Korea, Anne became a fashion model. So to me it seems possible that cholera, gravel, tuberculosis and cancer are the celestial means of locomotion, just as steamboats, buses and railways are the terrestrial means. Comscore ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. She then expresses her wish to die within this night sky, to be swallowed up by the beast who is consuming the stars. Even with these constraints, Van Gogh persevered to depict the beauty he saw. The author expresses a more private relationship with the painting and its visual artist as she relates her longing to pass away with such intense and serene feeling as the painting is suggesting to her.
It got me hooked to the point that anytime new poetry came about, I had to read it. Analysis Bearing in mind what has just been said about Sexton, and the confessional poets at large, the striking mortality of the poem is no longer surprising - the death motif dominates the piece thematically, and there are several examples of specific techniques that she uses in order to realise these topics. She does that most likely to emphasize on a certain important part of the poem. In order to write with more directness and greater honesty towards her own experiences and practices, Anne Sexton, as a true confessional poet, tries to avoid those poetic techniques which re-depress her poetry. As a child, she was never close to her sisters and her parents went out most nights, threw large parties and drank constantly. The diction in this poem is very interesting.
I will take scissors Sexton 175. The theme of this poem could be that this person is so depressed, they are to the point where they feel like the people on Earth and maybe the Earth itself are both insignificant. Turn, Talk, and Report Back Possible answers: The analogous colors used in the landscape bring a calm soothing mood to the sleeping village while the near-complimentary colors, or opposite colors, make the sky vibrate. This makes the stars and the swirling sky vibrate. Anne Sexton uses an extensive list of words to describe the setting. Look like an art critic Look at The Starry Night. How would you use this painting to elaborate on one of your units of study? Poems represented in numerous anthologies.
Compare and contrast the earth-bound elements in The Starry Night with the heavenly elements. HubPages Google Analytics This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. The author believes that her genitals are a gateway to the actions of devil and sin. She studied with other confessional poets, such as W. Eleven bright yellow stars that look like huge fireballs light up this whole piece and create an excellent contrast with the cool blue, fluid night sky that is made up of many shades of both blue and grey. When the night is talked about, her demeanor changes. Index Exchange This is an ad network.
She also uses personification of the objects to portray to the reader her interpretation of the work. Sexton was actively writing poetry from the late 1950s to her death from suicide through carbon monoxide poisoning. The elements ensure fluidity and this piece is not a happy piece nor a dark one as it has different tones throughout the whole piece. Of course, such themes as depression, death, sufferings cause negative feelings and make the readers ponder over their own life and psychological state Ostriker 53. More importantly, she finds common ground between herself and Van Gogh - her sympathy for the tortured artist, who's last words were 'The sadness will last forever', and her own depression and sadness come together in the last lines of the poem. Sexton mocks characters like Cinderella and Snow White because they are weak and choose to be seen and not heard.
Life Lesson Look beyond the bars that block your view. He sees in the future, and even in the present, a world of healthy, carnal love, strong and frank—of friendship—of work—under the great starlit vault of heaven a something which after all one can only call God—and eternity in its place above this world. As usually, the author shares her life experience with others. In the article, the author explains that many critics consider that the avante garde and confessional style cannot resist the narcissism that is inherent to subjectivity. Google Hosted Libraries Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.