1a. What "does not exist"? What is the "one black-haired tree" like?
2a. What does the speaker see in the sky? What is the moon like? What is it doing? What is happening to the stars?
3a. What does the speaker address directly in the last two lines of stanza 2? What does she say to this thing?
4a. Identify the main difference between the town and the sky.
5a. The speaker wants to split from her life with "no flag, / no belly, / no cry." To what degree has she abandoned life?
1b. What view overpowers and blots out the town? What is the town's response to the "drowned woman" who "Slips . . . into the hot sky"?
2b. What is the sky like? What emotions do you think the speaker feels looking at this sky?
3b. What is "The old unseen serpent"? What is being swallowed up? What is being born? In what sense are all things eventually swallowed up by night?
4b. What is the speaker's attitude toward life and death?
5b. The poet Dylan Thomas wrote to his dying father, "Do not go gentle into that good night." Contrast the attitudes about death in the Thomas and Sexton poems.
Confessional Poetry. What personal experience does this poem relate? With what extremely personal subject does it deal?
Epigraph. Review the chart you made in Literary Tools. Which mythic elements are affiliated with the town? Which are affiliated with the night sky? To what extent does Sexton's experience with the night sky mirror van Gogh's? Explain?
1. Anne Sexton sees death in the night sky. Write a paragraph explaining what you see in the night sky.
2. Imagine that you are Anne Sexton. Write a letter to your editor explaining why you decided to use van Gogh's The Starry Night as the subject for your poem.
3. Write a poem or paragraph inspired by a painting that you like.
Linking Verbs. Rewrite the following sentences. Star (*) the linking verb used in each sentence.
1. The town is silent.
2. The night sky looks hot; it boils with stars.
3. To the speaker, the night sky is a symbol for death.
4. Looking up at it, she becomes fascinated.
5. The speaker seems extremely depressed.
Business Letter.Imagine you are Vincent van Gogh. Write a letter to your art dealer saying you have just completed a painting called The Starry Night that you would like him to sell. Explain what inspired you to paint it and describe it in detail. You might find it useful to describe the painting in terms of the foreground, center, and background. Be sure to mention how much money you hope to make from the sale of the painting. Before you begin writing, you might want to review the Language Arts Survey 6.5, "Writing a Business Letter."
Researching Themes.Using the Internet, research the poetry of Anne Sexton in order to discover common themes in her work. One site you will find useful is the Academy of American Poets at http://www.poets.org. Use the Find a Poet feature to locate a biography of Sexton and a selection of her poetry. Next, read six poems by Sexton, identifying what you believe is the main theme in each one. Finally, choose one of the poems and write a short essay explaining how Sexton develops its theme.
