The Truth The Dead Know By Anne Sexton

Death is a very disturbing and close to home subject. This poem conveys some deep and interesting points on death and life. “The Truth the Dead Know” by Anne Sexton is a thought provoking and emotionally straining poem that highlights a relationship between life and death, explores a feeling of loss, and reveals a truth about how you lose what you have after death using a plethora of rhetorical and literary devices such as imagery, caesura, and simile to convey the messages to the reader.

In the poem, Anne Sexton uses a variety of literary techniques to make the reader understand what she is seeing and feeling. Among these literary techniques is simile. Anne Sexton uses simile in the poem to add imagery and make the reader have a deeper understanding of why she feels this way about life and death. In lines 14-15, Anne Sexton writes “They are more like stone / than the sea would be if it stopped.” (Sexton 4.14-15) This appeals to the readers mind and puts an image in their head of a still, lifeless body, more barren than a dessert. This line also contrasts with third stanza by comparing death sucking to life being good. Simile is very strong in this poem and really assists in letting the

Imagery is used in this poem to illustrate to the reader both the setting of the poem and the internal monologue scene played in Anne Sexton’s head while she contemplates death. In lines 5 to 8, Anne Sexton writes, “I cultivate / myself where the sun gutters from the sky, / where the sea swings in like an iron gate / and we touch.” (Sexton 2.5-8) This quote illustrates to the reader the setting of the poem. The use of the words “gutters” and “iron gate” give the reader a sense that life feels almost kind of forced or mechanical. Nothing feels quite real, and Anne Sexton does a great job of expressing to the reader how she feels overwhelmed by the emotions she is feeling and how she copes with