Young By Anne Sexton Literary Devices

Throughout Anne Sexton’s Young, the speaker’s utilization of highly descriptive imagery and evocative diction greatly details her memories of her childhood, hinting at the various struggles within her family and young life as she illustrates her surrounding environment. Opening with “a thousand doors ago,” the work depicts an event that occurred far in her past, specifically using hyperbole to exaggerate the elapsed time as doors through which she has progressed. With this figurative diction, the speaker highlights the separation between the events of the poem and the present, suggesting that the narrative voice has since developed from the childish and innocent perspective that she once held. Through this comparison with her childhood, the

Additionally, the speaker further illustrates her seclusion as even her family remains absent, as her “mother’s window [represents] a funnel of yellow heat” and her “father’s window, half shut, an eye where sleepers pass,” highlighting how both parents largely exist separated from their child. This revelation of the almost negligent treatment of the child greatly characterizes the entire family, as even though the speaker implies that the mother can provide the warmth and love of a family, the father evidently cares little for the daughter, sleeping while she stays outside the house, and the mother still fails to care actively for her child. Additionally, while the portrayal of the mother and father having individual bedrooms depicts an affluent family, the separation between the parents suggests that a conflict exists within the home. The work further reveals this struggle within the home as it highlights that the speaker “lay[s] on the lawn… [with] clover wrinkling over [her], the wise stars bedding over [her],” utilizing figurative language to portray a bedroom that provides