“Wanting to Die” is a poem in a collection called “Live or Die” by Anne Sexton. This is a confessional and personal poem that is filled with her emotional anguish and her conflicted feelings about life and death. The pain in her language is due to the topic that she is discussing, suicidal intentions. This poem speaks to how she ‘lusts’ for death.
The first stanza starts out with “Since you ask, most days I cannot remember” (line 1) Sexton is responding to an unidentified person about a question the readers are not told. However as one continues to read the poem the answer provides the reader with what the question initially was, which was why she desires death. She feels lost in this earthly world and she sees suicide as a “voyage” (line 2). Her pursuit of death will not stop until she has achieved it, which she explains in line
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This poem is written in free verse, which means that it is as though she just wrote this poem without much thought to it. Also by writing in free verse it is as though it is going to be a happy poem. However, as the reader delves into the poem and actually learn what the poem is really about, death, it is actually a very dark subject to be talking about. So, what is contradicting is the form and the subject of the poem. It seems so ‘carefree’ in the style she wrote the poem and yet the concept of suicide that is spoken about seen in a completely different light.
The reason it is important to pay attention to her personification of death, her usage of language, and the positive life that she puts death in, is because she wanted to bring awareness of her mental illness and suicide. This is important is because while she was alive, the concept of mental illness was still new and was not well accepted in society. Sexton is trying to bring awareness about suicide and the concept that people who commit or attempt suicide should not be