The Sickness Unto Death - Anne Sexton

 

The Sickness Unto Death by Anne Sexton

Anne Sexton was an American author who is known for her highly personal and confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer prize for poetry in 1967 for her book 'Live or Die'. Her poetry details her long battle with bipolar disorder, suicidal tendency and intimate details from her private life including relationships with her husband and children. This poem “The Sickness Unto Death” is published in her poetry collection “The Complete Poems” in 1981.

This poem depicts how the author feels hopeless and dejected. She says that God has went out of her and she compares herself to dried up sea. God has left her and she feel hollow deep inside. God has become like a stone. She feels that her body has become like a mutton flesh which has been slaughtered but even that mutton piece has some juiciness to it but her life seems to be filled with despair.

The poet says that people gifted her oranges when she was in despair but she could not eat or enjoy the oranges as she feels that God is in those oranges. Here the word oranges symbolically mean hope, fertility, thoughtfulness, creativity, flame and fire. She could not enjoy the good things in life since she feels so lost. She also tells that she could not touch what doesn't belong to her. She is full of despair.

The poet remembers how a priest once says that God was in Hitler and the poet wonder that if God was in Hitler then the God should be inside her too and she could not believe this statement because if God was inside her she would not have felt so much of despair. The poet tells that she could not hear the sound of the birds. By this she means that she could not feel the things around her. She could not enjoy the environment around her. The sound of the birds here refers to happiness. She could not see happiness or find happiness in her environment. Both in day and in night time she is so held up with worries, hopelessness and despair. Even the stillness and calmness of the night doesn’t give her peace.

In the mist of all this, a little meek voice deep inside her  keeps reminding herself that she has to hold on to something to live. People gave her Bibles, Crucifix and Yellow daisy and yellow Daisy here refers to hope and life. Again it is a symbolism used by the author but still the poet could not touch all these things as she feels so hollow deep inside her. Since her body is full of sin and hopelessness she could not enjoy the things. When sitting in the altar along with the God she could not go near the God. She just want to crawl to God and sit beside him but unfortunately she could neither sit nor eat. Altar here refers to the table where a communal feast is held along with Jesus

Finally, the poet says that she is eating up herself bit by bit by which she means that she is self-destructing herself. She is immersing herself in tears and when she had almost lost everything, including her breath,  Jesus who is looking at her with a look of affection puts oxygen into her mouth giving her a new life and new hope. Once she gets her new life she was brave enough to give the yellow daisy, the symbol of life and hope to the another woman who is just as crazy and as hopeless like her. Thus the poet in this poem “Sickness unto Death” depicts how her life was so full of despair and dejection and God alone was her saviour from all those hopelessness of life