The Starry Night

by Anne Sexton

Anne Sexton

That does not keep me from having a terrible need of—shall I say the word—religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars.Vincent Van Gogh in a letter to his brother

The town does not exist

except where one black-haired tree slips

up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.

The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars.   

Oh starry starry night! This is how

I want to die.

It moves. They are all alive.

Even the moon bulges in its orange irons   

to push children, like a god, from its eye.

The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars.   

Oh starry starry night! This is how   

I want to die:

into that rushing beast of the night,   

sucked up by that great dragon, to split   

from my life with no flag,

no belly,

no cry.

 

Response:

 

    The author of this poem, sounds like she is under a period of stress in the second stanza when she says:

 

Even the moon bulges in its orange irons   

to push children, like a god, from its eye.

The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars.   

Oh starry starry night! This is how   

I want to die:

 

    I think that she was trying to say that on such a night that she was looking up into the sky, on one of those nights, was a night when she wanted to die. But when she starts off the poem, and suddenly says:

 

Oh starry starry night! This is how

I want to die.

 

It makes her seem like she is wanting, and almost willing to die at that very second.

But, it is also beautiful when she writes her third stanza stating:

 

into that rushing beast of the night,   

sucked up by that great dragon, to split   

from my life with no flag,

no belly,

no cry.

 

    The descritive sentences in that stanza have action, that soon turns into its own painting, that is full of bright, vibrant colors.