The Abortion - Anne Sexton Essay

In Mary Anne Warren’s “The Abortion Issue,” children are not persons in the empirical sense. Warren believes that prior to a certain point in a pregnancy, the child does not have “the capacity to understand” the ramifications of what an abortion would be, therefore the abortion does not infringe upon the rights of the unborn fetus. She states that: “…in the ways that matter from a moral point of view, human fetuses are very unlike human persons, particularly in their early months of development”(152). In essence, personhood as defined by Warren can only come after the first trimester. Before that time, the fetus does not have the sentience that would make it a person. Warren’s main criteria for

Many great literary and artistic geniuses have been troubled with deep melancholy and phrenic illness. Anne Sexton is an example of a poet with such quandaries who utilized her personal despair to inspire her poetic works. Sexton’s raw material on the inequality of women in a flawed society has sprouted an uproar for change.

Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy. Since 1973 abortion has been an important controversial issue within the United States. 1973 marks the year that the famous Rowe versus Wade case was decided before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that abortion be legal and available to all women. Legal abortions can be performed up until the sixteenth week of pregnancy, after sixteen weeks most doctors or clinics will not perform the procedure unless keeping the baby presents a medical risk to the mother. Even in these situations abortions are very risky after sixteen weeks.

The author’s word choice is brief; therefore, not too much is mentioned about appearance and description in this particular poem. However, words/dialogue and specifically actions tell the story. For example, the baby smiles whenever the boy picks him or her up. When the boy lies the baby back down, the baby begins to cry. This foreshadows the fear of separation.

The controversy within the biomedical ethics topic, abortion, has two main proponents. The first is the view against abortion, also known as pro-life. The other view is rooted upon the belief of being pro-choice, or basically for abortions. These two different views are like two mathematical principles, in that although these two views have many differences, they also have larger similarities in the background. For example, when pro-choice activists support abortions due to unwanted pregnancies, the activists are not rallying behind the idea of sexual incompetency (pregnancies due to lack of birth control). Rather, they are supporting the idea that women have the right to choose what to do with their own bodies. In order to understand

In this stylistic analysis of the lost baby poem written by Lucille Clifton I will deal mainly with two aspects of stylistic: derivation and parallelism features present in the poem. However I will first give a general interpretation of the poem to link more easily the stylistic features with the meaning of the poem itself.

In addition, the Abortion poem by Anne Sexton deals with a woman’s reflection on her decision to terminate her pregnancy. Sexton states at the beginning of the poem that the mother has lost her child as, “Somebody who should have been born is gone”. The poem opens very strong. I believe that Sexton uses the issue of miscarriage but in different way as the woman chooses to kill her child by herself. The narrator uses the numerous images, which suggest the baby and the child, which the woman chose to abort through the landscape. It is effective because the symbolism express the idea of miscarriage in the poem, which the character forces herself to confront the reality of what she has done. One of the images of the poem is “like a crayoned cat, its green hair”. It

“Knitting” by Amy Olson-Binder deals with the grief of miscarriage. The narrator state the mother has lost the infant after three months. The title forces us to confront the symbol of the text, which I believe that Olson-Binder uses the issue of the miscarriage to narrate the poem through the knitting idea. It is effective because a baby begins with cells joining and gradually forms human features as the shape of its forming as a piece of knitting and become into the final garment. The idea of the knitting helps the readers easily understand and relate to the significant theme of the poem. As the mother knits garments to prepare for the birth the baby is growing inside. However, the narrator shows that the woman lost her child through a text “ Of silent stitching” It challenged me to think about the idea of quite a growth inside the uterus. The silence uterus confronts the issue of miscarriage, which the mother has no longer to be pregnant and the cell of the baby has no longer to join together. Also, Olson-Binder expressed the depressed tone through “private rocking place”. It provides the sad, hopeless, and gloomy

The poem “The Abortion” by Anne Sexton is one I have not been introduced to prior to now. My prediction for the story is based on its title that a child had been aborted, and now the speaker is fixed on the situation through sadness. The basis of the poem deals with the controversial topic of abortion, which had been difficult to discuss in the 1960’s conservative era, especially for women. Abortion is introduced from the very beginning of the poem when the speaker introduces the line “Somebody who should have been born is gone,” this indication leads to the sadness of the tone, and the main thought the speaker feels. Through the speakers use, of remorseful diction, refrain, and imagery, the speaker presents her guilt towards her decision of aborting the child.

The poem starts with the narrator announcing herself as a riddle in nine syllables. The nine syllables is the first hint that the poem is going to be about pregnancy. Plath correlated the use of the word ‘nine’ to the length of a pregnancy, giving the reader an inkling of what is to be expected of the poem. The narrator then goes on to describe herself as an elephant, then a house, two very distinctively large objects. She is now mocking the weight gain caused by pregnancy and she furthers this by comparing herself to a melon, strolling on two tendrils.

As the title suggests, duality is a hallmark in this poem. On the one side, the idea of the double body, during pregnancy, goes hand in hand with Kristeva’s standpoint. She argues that the “redoubling up of the body” underlines the identification between the daughter and her mother (Lemma 96). On the other side, Sexton is torn between two losses: her separation from her daughter, and the death of her mother to cancer. The poem demonstrates the kind of bond between Sexton and her mother, Mary Gray, and between Sexton and her daughter

He makes many lines quite long, but only those that link ideas together. He speaks of death and birth in the same line in the second stanza, just as he talks of male and female in the same line in the third stanza. He does this to aid the reader in deciphering the meaning of the poem. Everything is truth; everything is unified, even those things we perceive as opposite.

Beginning in the fourth line, metaphors of fertility form. Red fruit is an allusion to “fruit of thy womb” from the Bible and relates to the birth of a child. Fine timbers and Ivory are metaphors involving houses, which are represented by her womb as the child’s home until delivery.

The poem begins with the narrator's describing the poem as a 'dream' that ''was not at all a dream'', which already causes doubt and tension within the reader. The narrator then goes on to talk about

are used to portray. multiple aspects. of both. poems. For starters, the starvation. that. the. refugees undergo. is expressed well. by using. 'B' alliteration. in the 5th. line. of the. second. stanza; "...steps behind blown empty bellies." This. quote. emphasizes. on the. under-nourishment. of the. children, as. they. are fighting diseases. and a. lack of. food. Starving. children, who. are. also. suffering. from illness, get round. stomachs, and. the 'B' sound. here. shows. harsh. reality to. the life. and. suffering at. this moment. in the. refugee's life. When. reading. this. line, the 3 'B's are. expressed. in a tough. way, right. after each. other, in. contrast. .The. 'B's have. a sharp. and bold. sound to it, which. is a. skillful. way. to express. the poor. state. of suffering. refugees. and. the lack of. food. they have. As we. read on, we the quote. "Most mothers there had long ceased to care but not this one; she held..." . This. quote. shows. the contrast. of this. refugee. mother. and. other mothers. who might. live in. countries where. this. suffering. is not. currently. taking place. The. semi-colon. emphasizes. this. contrast. because. it. joins. the. two .ideas. of the refugee. mother. compared. with other. mothers. who are more.