Poets | Members | Poem of the Day | Top 40 | Search | Comments | Privacy
July 25th, 2008 - we have 237 poets, 8036 poems and 17725 comments.
Anne Sexton - The Abortion

Somebody who should have been born 
is gone. 

Just as the earth puckered its mouth, 
each bud puffing out from its knot,
I changed my shoes, and then drove south. 

Up past the Blue Mountains, where 
Pennsylvania humps on endlessly,
wearing, like a crayoned cat, its green hair, 

its roads sunken in like a gray washboard; 
where, in truth, the ground cracks evilly, 
a dark socket from which the coal has poured,


Somebody who should have been born
is gone. 

the grass as bristly and stout as chives,
and me wondering when the ground would break, 
and me wondering how anything fragile survives; 

up in Pennsylvania, I met a little man,
not Rumpelstiltskin, at all, at all... 
he took the fullness that love began. 

Returning north, even the sky grew thin
like a high window looking nowhere.
The road was as flat as a sheet of tin. 

Somebody who should have been born 
is gone. 

Yes, woman, such logic will lead
to loss without death. Or say what you meant, 
you coward...this baby that I bleed.

Added: on November 1st, 2007 at 1:04 PM | Viewed: 23873 times | Comments and analysis of The Abortion by Anne Sexton Comments (32)


The Abortion - Comments and Information

Poet: Anne Sexton
Poem: The Abortion
Poem of the Day: May 16 2004

Comment 32 of 32, added on March 5th, 2008 at 9:32 AM.

You shouldn't bring a baby to the world if you know you don't want it.So i agree with the poem someway.I'm selfish so i wouldn't want someone else to have my baby.Everybody makes mistakes and u have a choice.

Michele from United States
Comment 31 of 32, added on February 5th, 2008 at 6:09 PM.

Sexton suffered severe postpartum depression after the births of each of her two children, and the children went to live with their father's parents after the second breakdown. Sexton later lost her battle with bipolar disorder and took her own life.

Whitney Bell from United States
Comment 30 of 32, added on November 1st, 2007 at 1:04 PM.

Abortions should not happen.....They are really bad... I could understand If you was raped or something like that. But just because you dont want the baby.. Dont go kill It cause of your mistakes...

Kelsey from United States

Are you looking for more information on this poem? Perhaps you are trying to analyze it? The poem, The Abortion, has received 32 comments. Click here to read them, and perhaps post a comment of your own. Of course you can also always discuss poems by Anne Sexton with others on the American Poems poetry forum!

Poem Info

Sexton Info
Copyright © 2000-2008 Gunnar Bengtsson. All Rights Reserved. Links | Bookstore