JErnst


 * //The Starry Night// by Anne** **Sexton** (1439)


 * //That does not keep me from having a terrible//**
 * //Need of- shall I say the word- religion.//**
 * //Then I go out at night t//****//o paint the stars.//**
 * //-Vincent Van Gosh//**
 * //In a letter to his brother//**


 * The town does not exist**
 * except where one black-haired tree slips**
 * up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.**
 * The town is silent. The night boils with el****even stars.**
 * Oh starry starry night! This is how**
 * I want to die.**


 * It moves. They are all alive****.**
 * Even to the moon bulges in its orange irons**[[image:starry_night.jpg width="236" height="186" align="right" caption="Vincent Van Gogh- Starry Night"]]
 * to push children, like a god, from its** **eye.**
 * The old unseen serpent swallows up t****he stars.**
 * Oh starry starry night! This** **is how**
 * I want to die:**


 * into that rushing beast of the night,**
 * sucked up by that great dragon, to split**
 * from my life with no flag,**
 * no belly,**
 * no cry.**

Anne Sexton was born in 1928 in Newton, Massachusetts. She did not write poetry until she was twenty-eight. Her poetry has been labeled “confessional,” as her poems were more autobiographical than had been usual in American verse. She believed poetry “should be a shock to the senses. It should also hurt.” Sexton’s reappearing themes in her poems include sex, illegitimacy, guilt, madness and suicide. She suffered several mental breakdowns and spent some time in a mental hospital. Also, both of her parents died within three months of one another. Sexton committed suicide after a series of mental breakdowns in 1974.

“Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh served as an inspiration to this poem by Anne Sexton. The poem describes the immense size of the sky which seems to swallow the town. The narrator decides the way she would like to die is to be sucked up by the sky without any pain or crying. It mentions there are eleven stars in the sky, which is the amount of stars portrayed in Van Gogh’s painting. Sexton uses imagery to describe the sky. “Even the moon bulges in its orange irons/ to push children, like a god, from its eye” (1439). She also uses similes to portray the painting. “The town does not exist/ except where one black-haired tree slips/ up like a drowned woman into the hot sky” (1439).

There are many ambiguous aspects of Sexton’s poem, but the painting by Van Gogh helps readers to interpret her writing. “The town does not exist” could be explained by the fact that Van Gogh was in an asylum when he painted this picture. Therefore, he had to imagine this town in his mind. The “one black-haired tree” is the black object in the front of Van Gogh’s painting. “The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars” could be the blue swirl pictured at the top of the painting.

Sexton writes the phrase “This is how/ I want to die” twice in the poem. This line relates to her real life because she suffered many mental breakdowns and did eventually commit suicide. Also, I think she chose to use Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” as an inspiration because he was also a depressed and mentally ill artist who committed suicide. “The Starry Night” is a dark, depressing poem illustrating Sexton’s contemplation of suicide and how she would like to die.

I have included is a song called “Starry Starry Night” by Josh Groban which relates to both the poem and painting by Van Gogh and Sexton.


 * //“Lady Lazarus”// by Sylvia Plath (1478)**


 * I have done it again.**
 * One year in every ten**[[image:Sylvia_Plath.jpg width="197" height="267" align="right" caption="Sylvia Plath"]]
 * I manage it-**


 * A sort of walking miracle, my skin**
 * Bright as a Nazi lampshade**
 * My right foot**


 * A paperweight,**
 * My face a featureless, fine**
 * Jew linen.**


 * Peel off the napkin**
 * O my enemy.**
 * Do I terrify?-**


 * The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?**
 * The sour breath**
 * Will vanish in a day.**


 * Soon, soon the flesh**
 * The grave cave ate will be**
 * At home on me**
 * And I am a smiling woman.**
 * I am only thirty.**
 * And like the cat I have nine times to die.**


 * This is Number Three.**
 * What a trash**
 * To annihilate each decade.**


 * What a million filaments.**
 * The peanut-crunching crowd**
 * Shoves in to see**


 * Them unwrap me hand and foot-**
 * The big strip tease.**
 * Gentlemen, ladies**


 * These are my hands**
 * My knees.**
 * I may be skin and bone,**


 * Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.**
 * The first time it happened I was ten.**
 * It was an accident.**


 * The second time I meant**
 * To last it out and not come back at all.**
 * I rocked shut**


 * As a seashell.**
 * They had to call and call**
 * And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.**


 * Dying**
 * Is an art, like everything else.**
 * I do it exceptionally well.**


 * I do it so it feels like hell.**
 * I do it so it feels real.**
 * I guess you could say I’ve a call.**


 * It’s easy enough to do it in a cell.**
 * It’s easy enough to do it and stay put.**
 * It’s the theatrical**


 * Comeback in broad day**
 * To the same place, the same face, the same brute**
 * Amused shout:**


 * ‘A miracle!’**
 * That knocks me out.**
 * There is a charge**


 * For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge**
 * For the hearing of my heart-**
 * It really goes.**


 * And there is a charge, a very large charge**
 * For a word or a touch**
 * Or a bit of blood**


 * Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.**
 * So,so, Herr Doktor**
 * So, Herr Enemy.**


 * I am your opus,**
 * I am your valuable,**
 * The pure gold baby**


 * That melts to a shriek.**
 * I turn and burn.**
 * Do not think I underestimate your great concern.**


 * Ash, ash-**
 * You poke and stir.**
 * Flesh, bone, there is nothing there-**


 * A cake of soap,**
 * A wedding ring,**
 * A gold filling.**


 * Herr God, Herr Lucifer**
 * Beware**
 * Beware.**


 * Out of the ash**
 * I rise with my red hair**
 * And I eat men like air.**

Sylvia Plath’s poems begin as an autobiography, but she then transforms her experiences into fiction. Plath’s poems often display themes of death and suicide. She suffered a mental breakdown in college and attempted suicide. Her father died in 1940 from gangrene, when Plath was only eight years old. She studied at Cambridge University on a Fulbright grant where she met her husband and fellow poet, Ted Hughes. Years later, they divorced and Plath was left with their two children. Many of her poems are fueled by her anger toward her husband and her father. Plath wrote many poems in the last month of her life before she committed suicide in February, 1963.

The poem “Lady Lazarus” is about numerous suicide attempts that are never successful. Plath is comparing herself to Lady Lazarus, who is a biblical figure raised from the dead by Jesus. She believes she is like a cat and has nine times to die. Also, the poet believes dying is an art, and she does it “exceptionally well.” Plath writes in 3-line stanzas with capitalization at the start of each line. She uses similes such as “A sort of walking miracle, my skin/ Bright as a Nazi lampshade.” Plath also uses metaphors as poetic devices. For example, she writes “My face a featureless, fine/ Jew linen.”

One of the ambiguous lines of the poem is “A sort of walking miracle, my skin/ Bright as a Nazi lampshade.” I believe she is comparing herself to the Jews because of the pain they suffered by the Nazi’s in relation to the pain she suffers when she attempts to commit suicide time after time. “The peanut-crunching crowd/ Shoves in to see” can also be compared to people’s reactions to the Holocaust. The last lines of the poem “Out of the ash/ I rise with my red hair/ And I eat men like air” compares Plath to a phoenix rising from the ash. She transforms from a human into a spirit.

I believe this poem is heavily based on Plath’s personal life. The main subject of the poem, suicide attempts, is based on her own suicide attempts in college. Also, I believe the last lines illustrate her anger toward her husband and her father. “And I eat men like air” demonstrate her poetry is fueled by revenge towards the men in her life.

//**260**// **by Emily Dickinson (83)**


 * I’m Nobody! Who are you?**
 * Are you- Nobody- too?**
 * Then there’s a pair of us!**
 * Don’t tell! they’d advertise- you know!**


 * How dreary- to be- Somebody!**
 * How public- like a Frog-**
 * To tell one’s name- the livelong June-**
 * To an admiring Bog!**

Emily Dickinson was born to an upper class, religious family and grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. At age 24, Dickinson decided she would not marry and start a family as she was expected to. Instead, she spent her time in solidarity away from the world. Only seven of her poems were published during her lifetime. Dickinson always wore white to demonstrate the bride she would never be and restricted herself to her parent’s home working on her poetry. Her poetry consists of themes of loneliness and her own feelings. She was not concerned with money or fame; instead she did not even want the public to read her poems.

In this poem, Dickinson proclaims herself as a nobody and finds someone else who is also a “nobody.” She asks them not to tell anyone. Dickinson describes how it would be dreary to be “Somebody”, like a frog. She uses loose iambic trimeter with an ABCB rhyme scheme.

One of the ambiguous lines of the poem is comparing a “Somebody” to a frog. I think she makes that comparison because frogs are often croaking during June in the bog, in other words, announcing their presence to everyone. Also, Dickinson writes “Don’t tell! they’d advertise- you know!” I think she says “they’d” to write about her concern with the judgment of the outside world.

I believe this poem relates to Dickinson’s loneliness and solitary confinement in her parent’s house for most of her life. She says she is a “Nobody” because she has not had success in publishing her poems. Dickinson hides in her house to escape the outside world which she addresses in the line” they’d advertise- you know!” She is sympathetic to the people who are somebody because they have to constantly behave like a frog, keeping their presence in the public eye. I think she tries to downplay her loneliness by making this poem playful. However, I think her true feelings about herself come out when she calls herself a “Nobody.” Although she may not have achieved fame and money, she herself does not think much of herself either.

//**Note on Commercial Theatre**// **by Langston Hughes (1093)**


 * You’ve taken my blues and gone-**
 * You sing ‘em on Broadway**[[image:Langston_Hughes.jpg width="240" height="360" align="right" caption="Langston Hughes"]]
 * And you sing ‘em in Hollywood Bowl,**
 * And you mixed ‘em up with symphonies**
 * And you fixed ‘em**
 * So they don’t sound like me.**
 * Yep, you done taken my blues and gone.**


 * You also took my spirituals and gone.**
 * You put me in //Macbeth// and //Carmen Jones//**
 * And all kinds of //Swing Mikados//**
 * And in everything but what’s about me-**
 * But someday somebody’ll**
 * Stand up and talk about me,**
 * And write about me-**


 * Black and beautiful-**
 * And sing about me,**
 * And put on plays about me!**


 * I reckon it’ll be**
 * Me myself!**


 * Yes, it’ll be me.**

Langston Hughes was born in Missouri and grew up with his grandmother in Kansas. His mother was supportive of his poetry, whereas his businessman father did not. Hughes was very involved in radical politics in the 1930’s and was drawn to the American Communist Party. He was later listed as a security risk by the FBI until 1959 due to his connection with his 1930’s radicalism. Hughes attempted to repair his reputation by producing patriotic American poetry. He is one of the most popular writers connected to the Harlem Renaissance. His works focused on modern, urban black life. Hughes is known for modeling his stanza forms on the rhythms of jazz music and using everyday black speech in his poetry. An important goal of his was to acknowledge African Americans as owners to the culture they contributed to the United States.

“Note on Commercial Theatre” is about the misuse of the black culture in the Western world. Hughes writes about using the blues on Broadway and the Hollywood Bowl. The Westerners changed them so they don’t even sound the like the original blues. He also notes that they took their spirituals and incorporated them into plays, but they do not give any credit to the African Americans which the culture stems from. Hughes hopes that one day someone will stand up and give due credit to the “black and beautiful” and put on plays that truly reflect their culture. He believes he can make that change happen. Hughes does not use a rhyme scheme, he uses his own style.

One of the ambiguous aspects of the poem is who the narrator is speaking to when he uses the word “you.” I believe he is speaking to the white men and women who try to change the blues and overall beliefs of African American culture to contribute their own culture. Harlem became immersed in the blues and since it was popular, white people explored this new art and tried to incorporate their own art with it. “You also took my spirituals and gone” reflects his belief that white people were not allowing African Americans to have their own identity. Instead, they were trying to infuse the two cultures together.

I believe Hughes wrote this poem to try to get white people to acknowledge the black culture as a separate identity and give them credit to their music and art, such as the blues, as well as their “spirituals.” This relates to his own life because he was constantly trying to fight for the rights of the African American to their ownership of culture. He uses everyday black speech in this poem as he writes “’em” and “you done taken my blues and gone.” In the final lines of the poem, he declares that he believes he will be the one to finally achieve credit for his black community to sing and put on plays about their unique culture.

//**A Pact**// **by Ezra Pound (845)**


 * I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman-**
 * I have detested you long enough.**[[image:Ezra_Pound.jpg width="270" height="166" align="right" caption="Ezra Pound"]]
 * I come to you as a grown child**
 * Who has had a pig-headed father;**
 * I am old enough now to make friends.**
 * It was you that broke the new wood,**
 * Now is a time for carving.**
 * We have one sap and one root-**
 * Let there be commerce between us.**

Ezra Pound was born in Idaho and grew up in Pennsylvania with his parents. He graduated from University of Pennsylvania with an M.A. in 1906 and became a professor at Wabash College in Indiana. Pound lost his job within six months and became convinced that America was not the place for him, so he moved to London. He was conflicted by the desire to make writing new; however he also had an attachment to the old styles of writing. Pound was an advocate for “imagism” as well as “vorticism.” According to the Anthology, he thought America was a culturally backward nation and wanted to produce worldly poetry. Later on in his life, Pound was arrested for treason during World War II, but was not convicted because he was “insane and mentally unfit to be tried.” Between 1946 to 1958 he was a prisoner and patient in St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for the criminally insane. After his release due to the efforts of a committee of writers, he returned to Italy and died at 87 years old.

The poem “A Pact” demonstrates Pound’s hope to make amends with Walt Whitman’s writing. It seems that he previously “detested” his writing, but has now decided to embrace it. He refers to Whitman as a “pig-headed father,” but would like to make a pact.

There are many ambiguous aspects to this poem. “I am old enough now to make friends” signifies his detachment from previous poems that have influenced him. “We have one sap and one root” refers to Pound’s belief that they are essentially the same. “It was you that broke the new wood,/ Now is a time for carving.” states that Whitman was the first to introduce new ideas to the world of poetry, but he believes that it is now his turn to exhibit his talent.

I believe this poem is directly related to his confliction throughout his life to introduce new writing, while appreciating the old. His pact with Whitman illustrates his desire to stray away from the old writing by taking inspiration and creating new poetry. According to the Anthology, Walt Whitman was his symbol of American poetic narrowness. In this poem, we can see that he admired Whitman by admitting he is a “grown child,” but recognizes the need to expand American poetry. He longed to contribute to America by producing sophisticated, worldly poetry rather than the “narrowness” that Whitman produced.