Anne Sexton After Auschwitz

In Anne Sexton’s poem “After Auschwitz”, the speaker uses death as a metaphor to show that onlookers were the cause of the persecution of Jews and that men are evil but capable of beauty. Anne Sexton was a confessional poet, often writing about topics that were not embraced and talked about during her time period (Anne). One topic that was a painful topic to talk about was the Holocaust, which was the persecution and murder of over 6 million Jews in Europe during World War II (Documenting). Through the use of different types of figurative language such as personification, metaphors, and sound devices, Sexton reveals the purpose of the poem by exposing that humans are the cause of the Holocaust, however, even during tragedies there is still

The speaker personifies death in order to show how death was an onlooker of the murder of millions of Jews. In the second stanza, the speaker states, “And death looks on with a casual eye/ and picks at the dirt under his fingernail”(9-10). When the speaker describes death as looking at the holocaust with a casual eye, the speaker shows that death viewed the holocaust as a casual occurrence. The speaker goes on to describe death as picking its finger nails, giving the image that death is bored with what is happening and portraying death as an indifferent bystander. The speaker continues to personify death by stating, "And death looks on with a casual eye/ and scratches his anus" (19-20). Again, death is describes as viewing the Holocaust as casual, but now death scratches its anus. The image of one scratching their anus is gross and disrespectful. By the speaker describing death as scratching its anus, it show how little respect death has for the victims of the

However, instead of punishing them in cruel ways, she wants simple everyday tasks to be taken away from them. All of the activities the speaker describes are things that victims of the holocaust will never be able to do again. The speaker wants man to be punished by taking away simple everyday tasks that their victims will never be able to experience again. However, the speaker contradicts herself in the final stanza when she begs the Lord not to hear her punishment for men because she understands the beauty in every human life. The speaker states, “I beg the lord not to hear”(33). This is a huge contrast between the rest of the poem where the speaker is angry and blames Nazi’s, onlookers, and men for the death of innocent victims. Though the speaker is angry, she does not despise men completely. The speaker states, “Man is a flower” (15). Flowers are beautiful and full of life. The speaker could have easily compared man to something sinister, but instead she chose to describe them to something beautiful. Later, the speaker states, “Man with his small pink toes,/ with his miraculous fingers” (21-22). The speaker gives off an image of innocence when she describes man’s toes. She gives off an image of power and beauty when she describes man’s fingers as being miraculous. The speaker compares men to something beautiful and innocent to show that men do not have to be evil. Men have the capability to be