Analysis Of Touch By Anne Sexton

My poetry paper will analyze poet Anne Sexton 's experience of feeling lifeless until being subjected to a sexual touch, as manifested in three of her poems: "The Touch", "The Kiss", and "Mr. Mine". All three poems were originally published in 1969, five years prior to Sexton 's suicide, in her collection known as Love Poems. They are written in the form of confessional poetry, recognizable by the presence of first-person tense. "The Touch" employs imagery of disembodied hand to highlight the speakers vulnerability in its detachability, "just lonely / for something to touch / that touches back" ("Touch" 20-22). The speaker reveals their rejection, disclosing "[their] dog won 't do it / ... [their] sister won 't do it / ... [and their] father won 't do it" ("Touch" 23-30). The speaker uses the illustration of a carpenter to cue a transition from abandonment to attachment, narrating: "Then all this

This is the epitome of confessional poetry: unflinchingly raw, shamelessly honest. To me, these three poems display what sets Sexton aside from other poets of her era: bravery. She emotionally undresses herself through each line, exposing her naked mind with each stanza. The poems all include diction that implies an intense tone, and the atmosphere created by the language Sexton chooses is simultaneously grotesque and intriguing. Sexton personifies unique objects: a dismembered limb, a wooden vessels, a metropolitan expanse. By doing this, she highlights the lack of humanity she felt without the existence and affect a lover. I would like to further explore the root of this impression Sexton has–to discover what inspired this outlook on herself–and why it is so prevalent throughout her