Poetry Responce #7/It is Kind of Weird that People in Romantic Relationships on Medical Drama's Call Each Other by their Last Names

Virginia Byde Pacetti
Mrs. Jernigan
AP English IV
7 March 2011
Poetry Response #7
Anne Sexton wrote an ode entitled “In Celebration of My Uterus” praising the organ that represents her womanhood. Sexton divides the poem into four stanzas all of which are structured in a very different matter. The first stanza encompasses lines of varying length and five sentences (three of which have a clause begging with the anaphora “but.” Sexton conveys both her personal feelings about the event by using first person and addressing the uterus in second person, while still incorporating the third person doctors. The second stanza also has lines of different size, and the phrase “of the woman I am,” appears twice after praises given to the uterus. She shifts from the personal to the universal and external for the third person, third stanza, which has significantly more lines than the proceeding stanza of somewhat equal lines. It also has a predominate anaphora of “one is.” The last stanza harkens to the pattern of the second repeeting some of the same lines and yet emulates the third in its long list of “let me[s]” and “for[s].” Sexton only writes in third person for the last stanza.
She begins by personifying the uterus. She coddles it with her diction as if it were a child and she a proud mother. It seems that the antecedent occurrence to this poem involved a medical issue in which the doctors insisted she needed a hysterectomy to survive and yet she (or the uterus) proved them wrong. Her optimism seen in the triumph juxtaposed with the line “you are not torn,” which suggests how horrible the alternative to her decision was, relays her immense gratitude concerning avoiding the loss of the uterus. In the next stanza she presents her gratitude to her uterus by describing the “sweet weight,” which generally would be a point of complaint in women who take it for granted as an integral part of femininity. Then she relates the uterus in metaphors comparing it to a cup and to soil, showing how it’s chief purpose is to hold something and nurture said item that has laid its roots (a metaphor for a fetus). The third stanza concerns itself with sweeping generalizations such as, “each soul has a life,” and statements about “the harvest.” In relation to said harvest Sexton posits multiple situations of women doing exciting or basic activities all over the world where women are utilizing their uterus or glad of it. This of course promotes the earlier sentiment that the uterus ties the female anatomy and her ability to create life but also women as a collective as it is a defining characteristic. Sexton uses the last paragraph to explore what her purpose in life to help others or discover new things is, now that she has fortuitously defied death. This common reaction to healing furthers the gratitude she possesses and her willingness to fight no matter the obstacle posed to her.