Letter Written On A Ferry Tone

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In Anne Sexton’s poem “Letter Written on a Ferry”, she uses tone to convey meaning and to express her feelings. “Letter Written on a Ferry” was written while Anne was going through a breakup. This poem was written to express her feelings while going through this period of her life. When reading this poem, the reader automatically thinks a woman is leaving her loved one. Even though that is true, there is a hidden meaning that Sexton is trying to convey by using tone and her life experiences. First, Anne Sexton uses details to make her poetry more vivid and to help convey tone. She uses details like “at 2 o’clock on a Tuesday, in August of 1960” to help us understand the time period. Also, she uses “the cement lifeboat that wears, …show more content…
In this poem, the theme is change is good. The author changes throughout this poem because in the beginning, she is sad and depressed but later she realizes that the sea is a way for her to start over. Anne Sexton realizes later in the poem that the sea behind her is her past and is something she can forget about. The sea ahead is her future and she sees great things ahead for her. Also, in the end of the poem, she learns to stop worrying about her life and to help others. For example she begins to worry more about the nuns and wants to help them get free from the boat. She says “Let these four nuns, loosen their leather boots, and their wooden chairs, to rise out,”. This shows that the author wants the nuns to be free and live their lives without fear. Tone helps portray theme because the tone is sad and then happy which shows that the author starts out depressed but becomes happy and excited for her future. This relates to the theme because the author is changing. In conclusion, “Letter Written on a Ferry” is a poem about Anne Sexton’s life experiences and her emotions during the event. Anne Sexton uses tone to convey meaning and to express her feelings. Tone is also used to help the reader understand the theme of the poem. This poem not only uses tone and her emotions, but it also uses details and figurative language, like personification and symbols, to help describe

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