AnneSexton

Anne Sexton She was born in Newton, Massachusetts. She got married at age nineteen to Alfred Sexton and enrolled in a modeling course the same year. She gave birth to her first daughter in 1953 and the following year was diagnosed with postpartum depression and from here her life went downhill. she suffered multiple mental breakdowns. Her second daughter was born preceding more mental breakdowns, trips to the neuropsychiatric hospital, and even a suicide attempt on her birthday. her children had to be sent to live with her husbands parents because she was too unstable. her doctor encouraged her to start writing poetry, an interest she had in high school and she used poetry to help endure her life. her work was criticized for including dark depressing ideas. she won an award for her poetry in 1967, and eventually lost the battle with suicide and died in 1974 at age 46

  

Jesus walking When Jesus walked into the wilderness he carried a man on his back at least it had the form of a man, a fisherman perhaps with a wet nose, a baker perhaps with flour in his eyes. The man was dead it seems and yet he was unkillable. Jesus carried many men yet there was only one man - <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">if indeed it was a man. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There in the wilderness all the leaves <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">reached out their hands <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">but Jesus went on by. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The bees beckoned him to their honey <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">but Jesus went on by. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The boar cut out its heart and offered it <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">but Jesus went on by <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">with his heavy burden. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The devil approached and slapped him on the jaw <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and Jesus walked on. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The devil made the earth move like an elevator <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and Jesus walked on <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The devil built a city of whores, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">each in little angel beds, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and Jesus walked on with his burden. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For forty days, for forty nights <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus put one foot in front of the other <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and the man he carried, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">if it was a man, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">became heavier and heavier. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He was carrying all the trees of the world <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">which are one tree. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He was carrying forty moons <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">which are one moon. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He was carrying all the boots <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">of all the men in the world <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">which are one boot. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He was carrying our blood. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">One blood.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To pray, Jesus knew, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is to be a man carrying a man

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This poem is an explanation or metaphor to the purpose of prayer, using a figurative story. Jesus carries something resembling a man on his back through temptation and sin with the meaning that living with religion and prayer is how one may live a life free of sin. It´s interesting because it seems strange at first and when it´s revealed that it´s about prayer, it makes sense.