Suicide and Poem Courage

Courage By Anne Sexton Sometimes the biggest acts of courage happen in the smallest incidents. Growing up in the upper-class, being a model, and then eloping during the Great Depression is not all it is said to be. Dealing with abuse and divorce, poetry was the best kind of therapy for Anne Sexton. She did attend therapy sessions, and they were recorded so that they could be played back as inspiration for her poems. Sexton was hospitalized, and attempted suicide in her life, so her idea of courage might be different than what others may see it.

A baby’s first step, men fighting in war, dealing with abuse, and reaching old age are significant signs of courage. As she expresses her view on the subject, it is made clear that people do not need to be a “superhero” to be courageous. Anne Sexton varies the types of figurative language used in her poem Courage to show the numerous examples of how it is shown, however she used metaphors for the more important things. In the first stanza, courage is being shown in little ways. Sexton’s poem is divided into four stanzas, each representing a different stage in life. The first stanza is childhood.

The simile “the child’s first step, as awesome as an earthquake” is unique because it is meant both literally and metaphorically. Earthquakes are large and momentous, likewise is a child’s first step. Other events such as riding a bike for the first time and getting a spanking. This line in the poem (The first spanking when your heart/went on a journey all alone) is personification since a human heart cannot go on a journey, but it is also a metaphor saying the courage the child went through. Finally, in the first stanza, the last metaphor that is used is in the line: “you drank their acid/and concealed it”.

The “their” that Anne Sexton is referring to is bullys, abusers, etc. The courage the child is showing is by “drinking the acid” which is representing the hurtful words or abuse, and then hiding the pain felt. The second stanza is mainly referring to men fighting in the war. Sexton is saying how a soldier shows courage by being in the war. Even though it is hard, the metaphor “your courage was a small coal/that you kept swallowing” is used. Another example of the courage being shown is when a soldier dies in saving a fellow soldier. Sexton though doesn’t even think of hat as courage, but as love. The simile “it was love; love as simple as shaving soap” is used. The third stanza of Courage is not as specific as the others, it is just describing a person suffering. The suffering is on the heart, and Anne Sexton describes it as “getting a transfusion from the fire,/picking the scabs off your heart/then wringing it out like a sock”. Not only is there a level of imagery, but also a simile as well. After that, Anne Sexton uses personification to say that the person suffering is giving sorrow a “back-rub”. Then it wakes up to relief and the sorrow is gone.

As it says in the poem “and after it had slept a while/it woke to the wings of the roses/and was transformed”. Finally, Sexton ends the poem with the last stanza, which represents the courage shown in old age, and death. Although it is the natural process, fighting to live as long as possible is showing courage. The metaphor is comparing a sword to spring, saying that the person fighting to live as long as possible is like a sword sharpening. The person that is about to die is “bargaining with the calendar” personifying that they are trying to live as long as possible.

Then finally, the poem ends with death taking the person, and they will “put on their carpet slippers/and stride out. ”. This poem is free verse, and does not have any rhyme scheme. Although some people may disagree with what Anne Sexton defines as courage, it fits her life very well. Sexton died herself by committing suicide. Her confessional poetry reflected her sadness and struggles and to write a poem about courage was good for her, and possibly encouragement. Courage can be something shown everyday; in the little things as well as big things.