Anne Sexton's literary success did not provide her with inner peace, and like Plath as well she committed suicide by inhaling poisonous gas ("Biography of Anne Sexton," Poem Hunter, 2008). Prophetically, in Sexton's poem entitled simply "Wanting to Die," she wrote of suicides: "Still-born, they don't always die, / but dazzled, they can't forget a drug so sweet/that even children would look on and smile." However, although most of her poems can be characterized as confessional and psychologically oriented in their subject and tone, not all of them are simply anecdotes from the poet's tormented life. Sexton's willingness to talk about the complicated feelings of mothers, specifically mothers and daughters, was revolutionary for its time, and she also addressed her own issues in light of a long cultural tradition of silencing female voices, as reflected in her poems on fairy tale heroines like Briar Rose and Snow White. "Beauty is a simple passion, but, oh my friends, in the end/you will dance the fire dance in iron shoes," wrote Sexton. Her Snow White poem about is about female competition and how the young beauty supplants the old in the tale of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Usually eschewing conventional rhymes...
"Let us put your three children/and my two children,/ages ranging from eleven to twenty-one,/and send them in a large air net up to God,/with many stamps, real air mail,/and huge signs attached: / SPECIAL HANDLING./DO NOT STAPLE, FOLD or MUTILATE!" she cries in "The Child Bearers," reflecting both her desire to care for her children, but also to escape the confines of a feminine life devoted to the care of others.
" Thus, some may argue that the Sappho's implication for modern gender roles is stunning, suggesting that feminism is not a modern movement, but had its roots as far back as Sappho's time. In addition to its implications for gender and all humanity, Sappho's poetry is of special significance regarding the topic of homosexuality. North writes that two important terms used by homosexual women today come from Sappho and her surroundings --
Sappho Bowman, L. (2004). The "women's tradition" in Greek poetry. Phoenix 58 (1), 1-27. Bowman -- a Greek scholar at the University of Victoria in Canada, who has published on issues of women in antiquity -- addresses the question of Sappho as a specifically female poet, and how gender affects her place in the "tradition" of Greek poetry. Bowman approaches the issue from two angles. She asks first whether there was a
Sappho Among the famous love poets known today, few of them are women, even though women are generally considered to be the more romantic and sentimental gender. However, one of the most influential of the ancient Greek poets was in fact a woman. Sappho is still known today for her incredible influence on the direction of poetry and the passion involved in her work. Also, Sappho is famous for her unconventional
He cannot imagine killing his family and friends. Disloyalty haunts him from both directions. He would deceive his family and friends by fighting against them, but he would also deceive the Kurus by refusing to fight for their cause. He is wracked with grief over the fact that the Kuru army would even think of engaging in a war with their kinsmen. 2. What is the "embodied self"? The "embodied self"
Sappho In "That fellow strikes me as god's double," the speaker experiences unrequited love. The narrator feels an overwhelming sexual desire for a man or woman on the couch, who is coupling with a "fellow." Overwhelmed with jealousy, the speaker claims that the fellow "strikes me as god's double." The phrase "strikes me" can be taken two ways: as a figure of speech but also as a literal reference to being
From this prohibition, women like Murasaki Shikibu helped develop what would become known as classical Japanese prose. But because Murasaki wrote in a style of Japanese that was still developing from the spoken language, many of the physical gestures often associated with the spoken word make the prose seem "flowery," and overly descriptive. Women had a secondary role in society, and this was reflected in the writings of Murasaki
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