The topic of loss and separation in poetry

Contents

1 Introduction

2 Analysis of three poems
2.1 Anne Sexton: “THE BREAK AWAY”
2.2 Kenneth Rexroth: “SHE IS AWAY”
2.3 Stanley Kunitz: “RIVER ROAD”

3 Conclusion

4 Selected Bibliography
4.1 Primary Sources
4.2 Secondary Sources

1 Introduction

As the title suggests, this term paper deals with the topic of loss and separation in poetry. The texts which have been chosen as relevant material are the poems “THE BREAK AWAY ” by Anne Sexton, “SHE IS AWAY” by Kenneth Rexroth and “RIVER ROAD” by Stanley Kunitz^[1]. These three poems center around the same problem but they differ not only in the perspective of the lyrical I^[2] but also in certain stylistic devices. It is the aim of this term paper to point some of these differences out and to describe the concept of loss and separation, i.e.: how loss and separation are perceived in each case by the lyrical I. In this context it should be mentioned that not all relevant elements of each poem can be taken into consideration- doing so would go beyond the scope of this term paper^[3]. Consequently, the main idea is to present some basic ideas.

In some cases it will be necessary to look at certain parts of a poem in great detail. There will also be some autobiographical references to the lives of the authors – mainly to Anne Sexton and Kenneth Rexroth as only very few material has been available about Stanley Kunitz. In doing so the reader must be aware of the fact that the poems do surely not present totally autobiographical experiences- nevertheless it seems to be quite impossible to strictly keep these out of them.

2 Analysis of three poems

2.1 Anne Sexton: “THE BREAK AWAY”

Anne Sexton’s poem “THE BREAK AWAY” presents the feelings of a personality that seems to be totally split. The lyrical I talks about a broken marriage and enables the reader to share the emotions it has which can be characterised as being something in between fear and hope or happi- and sadness. This juxtaposition is expressed from the first to the last section of the poem. No point of view seems to be dominant as the positive aspects of the broken marriage are described as well as the negative ones. At the end of the poem the reader is left alone with the decision of how to evaluate the story of the divorced couple – just is the lyrical I itself.

The lyrical I describes the courtroom, where the divorce is carried out, as “a cement box” (line 3) and “a gas chamber” (line 4). The images which are used here carry strong elements of death and destruction. This is once more stressed in lines 12 and 13 where it is said that “the courtroom keeps squashing our lives as they break/ into two cans ready for recycling” (line 13). The situation the divorce causes seems to be very problematic and it is obvious that the lyrical I does not know how to cope with it. Is the life after “my twenty-five years of hanging on ” (line 16) a “possibly promised land” (line 5) and- as the promised land did for the Jews- symbolises liberation, or is it just “death” (line 8)? It is not really possible to answer that question^[4] though it is clear that the elements of betrayal and disappointment which have been part of the described marriage, have certainly left wounds which are still unhealed. One of them is the fact that it has not been possible to keep the promise to stay together “till-death-do-us” (line 7) part. There is a bitter tone in this line which is caused by the broken illusion of endless love and that is why the courtroom is referred to by the antonomasy “betrayal room” (line 7). But even though the love between the two partners has vanished, there is still a connection between them which is represented by the daisies. In line 1 the lyrical I states that “your daisies have come”. When reading this passage, the image that comes into the reader’s mind is the one of a husband who knows that daisies are the favourite flowers of his wife and therefore sends her some as often as he can. The question arises whether this has been the case in the presented marriage. If so, then what in former time has been a sign of community is now a bitter reminder of the fact that the marriage is over- especially because they “have come/ on the day” (lines 1/2) which is supposed to be an end. For that reason the daisies are said to be “like round yellow fish,/ sucking with love at the coral at out love” (lines 6/ 7). This description is surely not positive and expresses the inability to accept the daisies in a way they may have been accepted many times before. The reader can assume that the lyrical I has once been happy when it received daisies and knows that now she is not. It is therefore said that the daisies stay “your daisies” (line 1) ( this implies that they are not mine!) and, moreover, that they have come “on the day of my divorce” (line 2) – which certainly is the day of his divorce as well. The first two lines therefore present the separation and the loss that has taken place as the former “us”^[5] has been split into something like “you and me”^[6]. The lyrical I cannot really accept that situation and feels isolated from itself and from its former partner. It has no real home what is expressed by the Jew^[7] of whom it says it feels “in me” (line 4/ 6). There is another interesting image used in the first section: “the unlocking of scissors/ that makes the now separate parts useless” (lines 8/9). Here, the lyrical I compares the former partners to the two parts of a scissors which have been unlocked and thereby made useless. (A scissors is only a scissors if the two parts are connected.) Still, even a scissors which works is not a positive metaphor because it is destructive in the first place. According to the lyrical I the scissors served “to cut each other up as we did yearly” (line 10)- now even that is impossible. The scissors could therefore account for the fact that their marriage was neither happy when they were together nor yet when it is broken- but still they seem to need their partner in order to be complete.

The second section starts with exactly the same two lines as the first one and therefore stresses that the daisies express aspects which are essential for this poem. As stated above they represent the try to keep the old connection alive while at the same time the knowledge that it is all over cannot be repressed- and even the daisies seem to know that. Their attempt to survive and “breathe like premies, in and out” (line 33) is useless because “they know they are about to die” (32). Still, there is some life left in them and that reminds the lyrical I of its marriage as the daisies survive “twenty- five illicit days”^[8] (line 36).

In the third section the daisies are once more mentioned and it is said that they “stand for a love/ undergoing open heart surgery” (lines 68/69). Here, the daisies may represent not only the broken marriage but could stand for the lyrical I or- if one takes into consideration that Anne Sexton signed some of her letters with “your daisy lady”^[9] - for Anne Sexton herself. If the latter is the case than it becomes clear that the lyrical I fears that the wounds it has received will never heal. Accordingly it is described that the operation “might take” (line 70) but only under one circumstance “if one prayed tough enough” (lines 71). The lyrical I still hopes for healing and therefore prays “as a child would/ that the surgery take” (lines 84/85).

[...]

^[1] All references within a certain chapter deal with the specific poem the chapter is about.

^[2] As the author of a poem and the lyrical I speaking are not necessarily identical „it“ is used as the pronoun referring to the lyrical I of each poem.

^[3] Especially in the case of Anne Sexton’s poem “THE BREAK AWAY”.

^[4] The uncertainty about the things to come is also reflected in the „two cans ready for recycling“ (line 13): Recycled material is bound to become something else but there are a lot of possible `products`.

^[5] This unity is referred to by “our song” (line. 42).

^[6] Cf.: line 13: “into two cans…”.

^[7] Jews themselves did not have a home for a long time and are typical examples of isolated people.

^[8] This of course refers to the “twenty five years of hanging on” (line 16).

^[9] Cf.: Linda Gray Sexton & Lois Ames, Anne Sexton- A Self-Portrait in Letters (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977) 406.