Jamie Policky
Jean Forst
English 1002
21 October 2014 The Starry Night There are only so many series of unfortunate events that one can handle. Feeling alone or unimportant can lead to some very drastic decisions. Even the decision to take one’s own life. Anne Sexton shows just that in her poem The Starry Night. Reaching out to readers with profound meaning, the writer expresses battling thoughts of suicide as a lonely woman seeking to be accepted. The title comes from the famous painting by Vincent Van Gogh “Starry Night.” Van Gogh was a disturbed and mistreated artist just as Anne Sexton was. The poet stresses and supports that she feels depressed and is yearning for death. Also, how there is nothing more that she needs to be exposed …show more content…
Possessing a sense of loneliness the author envies the black haired woman who allegedly committed suicide. “The town does not exist except where one black-haired tree slips up like a drowned woman into the hot sky” (lines 1-3). The narrator uses a simile to describe the black-haired tree and how she believes it is a woman who drowned into the hot sky. This simile expresses how the author views her world in a complete different limelight and is experiencing some harsh pain. The imagery of death is seen in the disassociation with the town in lines 4-6. “The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars. Oh starry starry night! This is how I want to die” (lines 4-6). The poet shows symbolism by using the word boils in the quote. Also, the author uses illusion by using the words “Oh starry starry night” (lines 5 and 11), referring to the painting by Vincent Van Gogh titled Starry Starry Night. There is a formal level of diction in the story and expresses negative significance. The pessimistic tone of the poem reinforces the statements of how the narrator wants to die. The formal level of diction indicates that the writer was educated but did not use every day speech. Diction such as black, drowned, and silent suggest her alienated and suicidal
Jean Forst
English 1002
21 October 2014 The Starry Night There are only so many series of unfortunate events that one can handle. Feeling alone or unimportant can lead to some very drastic decisions. Even the decision to take one’s own life. Anne Sexton shows just that in her poem The Starry Night. Reaching out to readers with profound meaning, the writer expresses battling thoughts of suicide as a lonely woman seeking to be accepted. The title comes from the famous painting by Vincent Van Gogh “Starry Night.” Van Gogh was a disturbed and mistreated artist just as Anne Sexton was. The poet stresses and supports that she feels depressed and is yearning for death. Also, how there is nothing more that she needs to be exposed …show more content…
Possessing a sense of loneliness the author envies the black haired woman who allegedly committed suicide. “The town does not exist except where one black-haired tree slips up like a drowned woman into the hot sky” (lines 1-3). The narrator uses a simile to describe the black-haired tree and how she believes it is a woman who drowned into the hot sky. This simile expresses how the author views her world in a complete different limelight and is experiencing some harsh pain. The imagery of death is seen in the disassociation with the town in lines 4-6. “The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars. Oh starry starry night! This is how I want to die” (lines 4-6). The poet shows symbolism by using the word boils in the quote. Also, the author uses illusion by using the words “Oh starry starry night” (lines 5 and 11), referring to the painting by Vincent Van Gogh titled Starry Starry Night. There is a formal level of diction in the story and expresses negative significance. The pessimistic tone of the poem reinforces the statements of how the narrator wants to die. The formal level of diction indicates that the writer was educated but did not use every day speech. Diction such as black, drowned, and silent suggest her alienated and suicidal