Helen Humphreys’ Afterimage and Anne Sexton’s poems, For John, Who begs Me Not to Enquire Further a

Helen Humphreys’ Afterimage and Anne Sexton’s poems, For John, Who begs Me Not to Enquire Further and The Black Art

Woman artists have often been condemned as lesser artists than their male contemporaries, and this critical view appears in Helen Humphreys’ Afterimage and in Anne Sexton’s poems “For John, Who begs Me Not to Enquire Further” and “The Black Art”. The woman artists in these works use their creative talents to escape the mundane and sometimes painful realities of their lives. They are also experimental in their approach to subject matters and are eager to transgress societal beliefs. While their methods and journeys differ, the women in these works emerge as true artists through their distinct outlooks on life, their novel approaches to subject matter, and their transgressions of traditional beliefs.

In Humphreys’ Afterimage, the protagonist Annie Phelan is a budding artist-model who has suffered from a life of loss and pain. To escape from reality, she flees to the imaginary world of Jane Eyre. Annie compares her new employers, the Dashells, to the characters in her favourite novel. She is disappointed, for she is unable to make her imaginary world come alive. This dreamy quality of the female artist resonates in the heart of the female narrator in “The Black Art” who hurts from feeling “too much” (The Black Art 1). Like Annie, this poet senses ennui towards everyday life. She feels “as if mourners and gossips/and vegetables were never enough” (4-5). At the end of the poem, the narrator is still at odds with the real world in which “the children leave in disgust” (23). In Afterimage, however, Annie finds hope in Jane Eyre after she discovers that the Dashells are easygoing employers: “Perha...

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...sitions, especially from male artists.

Romanticizing their arts, the woman artists in these works gravitate towards escapism from their painful, mundane lives. If one loves something, one must set it free. Annie Phelan in Afterimage lets go of the burning boy dressed as an angel. This burning angel evokes the image of the Fallen Angel. It is also symbolic of these woman artists’ works: although their artworks transgress the rules of society, they make a lasting impact on all those who witness them, thus making these women influential artists.

Works Cited

Humphreys, Helen. Afterimage. Toronto: HarperFlamingo, 2000.

Sexton, Anne. “For John, Who begs Me Not to Enquire Further”. 1960. The Complete Poems. pp. 34, 35. Boston: First Mariner Books, 1999.

Sexton, Anne. “The Black Art”. 1962. The Complete Poems. pp. 88, 89. Boston: First Mariner Books, 1999.