Witches and Women
Self-Expression
Canonical Resistance
"the plain houses, light by light"
(line 4)
1: recital of poetry
2: desire for secrecy of action
(not confident in self)
"Her Kind" by Anne Sexton
Sexton tried to quench nerves
before poetry recitals with alcohol (Salvio)
timid in personal life
personal growth on stage &
in poem
- "childish, selfish, incompetent" (Middlebrook)
- writing meetings
- took up too much time, became too drunk, too loud (Middlebrook)
- unsightly witch of the poetry realm
- canonical poetry: blatantly objective
Connecting Mental State
1: reason why she began writing
confessional poetry
2: Growth and development
"primarily theraputic in intent
and effect... autobiographical... truthful" (Gill)
"glamorous costumes" and
"manicured nails"
1: shows individuality
2: links speaker and Sexton's
personal lives
Subversive Housewives
Canonical Acceptance
"not a woman, quite" (line 6)
1: young teenager
2: move from solitary to domestic
"rearranging the disaligned"
(line 14)
1: ambiguous
herself? children? objects?
2: attempting to fill social role
I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light:
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.
A woman like that is not a woman, quite.
I have been her kind.
I have found the warm caves in the woods,
filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,
closets, silks, innumerable goods;
fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:
whining, rearranging the disaligned.
A woman like that is misunderstood.
I have been her kind.
I have ridden in your cart, driver,
waved my nude arms at villages going by,
learning the last bright routes, survivor
where your flames still bite my thigh
and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.
A woman like that is not ashamed to die.
I have been her kind.
"innumerable goods"
(line 10)
1: attempt to fill social role
2: "consumes, cooks and
rearranges" the house (Pollard)
- use of allusion to famous historical/literary figure
- "bestows... a sainted identity even while it confirms a social definition of madness" (Alkalay-Gut)
- canonically acceptable move
Taking it to a Spiritual Level?
"... a cure for their rationality
rather than their irrationality." (Elis)
1: participates through creation
and reading/interpretation
2: shamanistic practices banned
subversive of social norms
Charisma Bounds
Works Cited
"cultural expectations of her
time" (Pollard)
1: performance foreshadows transformation of witch/speaker
2: defies passivity of women
"not ashamed to die"
(line 20)
1: proud of accomplishments
2: comfortable in self; labelled
as mad by society.
Gill, Jo. “Anne Sexton and Confessional Poetics.” The Review of
English Studies Vol. 55 No. 220; 2004. Oxford University Press. 425-445. JSTOR. 25 Sept. 2015.
Middlebrook, Diane Wood. “Housewife into Poet: The
Apprenticeship of Anne Sexton.” The New England Quarterly Vol. 56 No. 4; 1983. 483-503. JSTOR. 26 Sept. 2015.
Pollard, Clare. “Her Kind: Anne Sexton, the Cold War and the idea
of the housewife.” Critical Quarterly Vol. 48 No. 3; 2006. 1-24. JSTOR. 25 Sept. 2015.
Sexton, Anne. “Her Kind.” The Complete Poems: Anne Sexton.
First Mariner Books, Boston. 1981. 15-16. Print.
Showalter, Elaine. “Comments on Jehlen’s ‘Archimedes and the
Paradox of Feminist Criticism.’” Signs Vol. 8 No. 1; 1982. University of Chicago. 160-176. JSTOR. 24 Sept. 2015.
"waved my nude arms at
villagers going by ... learning the bright routes, survivor"
(line 16-17)
1: Sexton became this woman
2: self-worth more important
than others' judgement
3: citizens physically injure her,
but still happier now