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Anne Sexton - "I Remember"

7 posts in this topic.

  1. I Remember

    By the first of August
    the invisible beetles began
    to snore and the grass was
    as tough as hemp and was
    no color—no more than
    the sand was a color and
    we had worn our bare feet
    bare since the twentieth
    of June and there were times
    we forgot to wind up your
    alarm clock and some nights
    we took our gin warm and neat
    from old jelly glasses while
    the sun blew out of sight
    like a red picture hat and
    one day I tied my hair back
    with a ribbon and you said
    that I looked almost like
    a puritan lady and what
    I remember best is that
    the door to your room was
    the door to mine.


    A little history: Anne Sexton was good friends with Sylvia Plath and this was after Sylvia Plath killed herself by sticking her head in an oven. Make of that what you will, just thought you ought to know.

    Anne Sexton is another "confessional" poet in many senses of the word. They do tend to dramatize things.
  2. I like this one. More on that later.
  3. I like this one too but not in the same complex way that I liked the last one [sorry for never commenting @Lumi, it was just a lot to think about and it kept getting away from me DX]. This one is more simplistic in the word choice, and maybe what it's talking about, but it has a very real feel to me. I hear "the grass was as tough as hemp" and I know what that means. I've felt that.

    Personally I love that type of simile and that's what I strive for. Simple one or two words that describe what I want perfectly. No need to explain.
  4. Hmm, this is a sweet poem. I love that it takes like a wide view, then zooms in to these moments with the hair tying and the room together. The phrase that comes to mind for me when reading this poem is "past tense". With the title of the poem "I Remember" and then going through all the details that seem blurry from that summer -- like all the details blend together and although they all build feelings of excitement, summery days, time-passing (feet worn), and just living life, it also sort of seems like a list of nonsense -- as far as I don't readily see a lot of symbolism and connection between each image, nor do I see them giving us details of a story but just scattered concrete memories. (This may very well be because I haven't figured out the symbolism and connection, but not that it isn't there to begin with). But all the "nonsense" (and I mean nonsense in the best way, like nonsense that builds a mood and feeling, but not quite a story) is reduced to that really poignant conclusion. The part of the summer that mattered most - was this other person. The sharing of these memories. It puts a different flavor on the memories, because we learn the closeness of the two characters who went through these memories together.

    Overall, I liked the poem!
  5. I keep getting stuck on "and what/I remember best is that/the door to your room was/the door to mine" because that means something specific to me but based on my research that's probably not what's meant. I guess it could be a roommates/best-friends-having-a-sleepover kind of thing.

    Anyway, I love the imagery and the tone this sets - and like alliyah said, I think what is particularly powerful about this poem is the way it starts out with more general summer images and gradually narrows until at the end you get that specific instance of "one day."
  6. I find this poem to be very nostalgic, because I choose to interpret it as a bunch of scattered memories that perhaps the narrator/Anne Sexton herself feels very close to. I found this to be powerful, especially in how it all builds up to the last 3 lines; "and what/I remember best is that/the door to your room was/the door to mine." While I personally find meaning within this for myself, I have no possible way of truly knowing what Anne meant by it.

    On top of that, I love the execution. I love the way I can hear the beetles snore and feel the rough grass beneath my feet. It creates an aura of familiarity to the reader, and while I may not have gone through each experience myself the imagery is well done enough that the images play through my mind and helps me feel and understand what the poet is trying to convey.

    *** Also, this is my first time posting/being a part of this club. If I'm not doing something properly, or I'm not doing my part please don't hesitate to let me know. I'm super excited to have joined :)
  7. You're totally doing exactly what you need to be @Konijnje <3


I will not allow my life's light to be determined by the darkness around me.
— Sojourner Truth