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May 23rd, 2013 - we have 234 poets, 8,025 poems and 56,671 comments.
Anne Sexton - The Dead Heart

After I wrote this, a friend scrawled on this page, "Yes." 

And I said, merely to myself, "I wish it could be for a 
different seizure--as with Molly Bloom and her ‘and 
yes I said yes I will Yes."

It is not a turtle 
hiding in its little green shell. 
It is not a stone 
to pick up and put under your black wing. 
It is not a subway car that is obsolete. 
It is not a lump of coal that you could light. 
It is a dead heart. 
It is inside of me. 
It is a stranger 
yet once it was agreeable, 
opening and closing like a clam. 

What it has cost me you can't imagine, 
shrinks, priests, lovers, children, husbands, 
friends and all the lot. 
An expensive thing it was to keep going. 
It gave back too. 
Don't deny it! 
I half wonder if April would bring it back to life? 
A tulip? The first bud? 
But those are just musings on my part, 
the pity one has when one looks at a cadaver. 

How did it die? 
I called it EVIL. 
I said to it, your poems stink like vomit. 
I didn't stay to hear the last sentence. 
It died on the word EVIL. 
It did it with my tongue. 
The tongue, the Chinese say, 
is like a sharp knife: 
it kills 
without drawing blood.

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Added: Feb 20 2003 | Viewed: 7762 times | Comments and analysis of The Dead Heart by Anne Sexton Comments (2)

The Dead Heart - Comments and Information

Poet: Anne Sexton
Poem: The Dead Heart
Poem of the Day: Apr 10 2013

Comment 2 of 2, added on January 16th, 2013 at 2:49 PM.
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Upon reading this poem I iliadmetemy recalled something that a poet told me who once sat on a panel of poets with Billy Collins. It has been a while but what I recall in essence is that Collins is sensitive to criticism that his poetry appeals to the larger following he enjoys because his poetry is too simple. He felt that how hard he worked on his poetry to make it accessible was underappreciated. When I read this poem I hear a speaker entreating the reader to dive into the experience of the poem and to not miss the intended experience while looking for some multi-layered and intricate meaning—to enjoy the simple and obvious essence of the poem. What I love about this poem is its plea to the reader to enjoy the simple beauty of a poem in the same way we might enjoy a hummingbird. I don’t need, or want, a scientist to tell me how the hummingbird manages to be a hummingbird, or, better yet, how a bubble bee flies when it isn’t supposed to be able to fly. One particularly intriguing line for me in the poem is “waving at the author’s name on the shore.” Why would the speaker-poet not want the water skier to wave at the poet proper? Having asked that, I am satisfied Collins gave the matter a great deal of thought and that the answer may very well have to do with the desire to minimize the author while maximizing the experience of the poem.“They,” first appearing in the penultimate stanza, I suspect, are the critics that view Collins’ poetry as too simple. And I simply love the image of “beating it with a hose.” The obvious point here may be that the poem, or Collins’ poetry, does not know more that it readily professes. I do wonder if Collins is complaining a bit here about how is poetry is treated, or, perhaps, he is playing Cool Hand Luke, as in, “Please, don’t beat me no more boss.” I don’t read the poem as Collins suggesting no poem will reveal more upon further analysis, just that it isn’t necessary for all poems to be deeply analyzed.

Whatson from Samoa
Comment 1 of 2, added on January 26th, 2006 at 7:19 AM.

i really adore the ending.


karen from United States

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