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Analysis Of The Truth The Dead Know By Anne Sexton

Decent Essays

Anne Sexton was known for using poetry to make sense of her perspective. In her elegiac poem, “The Truth the Dead Know”, published in 1962, she shines a light on her feelings towards the death of her parents. “The Truth the Dead Know” commences with the speaker, which is Sexton herself, “refusing the still precession to the grave” and being “tired of being brave”. She proceeds to “The Cape” to bury a loved one. She looks on towards the ocean, wonders about all the death that occurs around the world, and expresses her resentment towards the dead, who “refuse to be blessed, throat, eye and knuckle bone.” Sexton’s pessimistic tone is used to highlight her pain. When describing her experience at “The Cape”, she uses paradoxical imagery to depict

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