Anne Sexton lived a very interesting life; one that I would say comes once a century. A life that can only be lived for so long, before the conquering madness has its way with the fragile life that was Anne Sexton's. During her 46-year life span, Anne Sexton wrote some impressive works in literature. Of all her poems, one stands out and catches my fancy; the poem is called "The Abortion." During Anne Sexton's final years, she was having suicidal depression among many other sicknesses. After she became suicidal, Sexton began to see a psychiatrist. During her sessions her psychiatrist, Dr. Martin T. Orne, she was recommended to write poetry and plays to help her express some emotions that were held captive in her mind. She wrote a book called All My Pretty Ones, which includes the poem "The Abortion." Around 1960, Anne Sexton became pregnant, and fearing that her husband was not the father, "she persuaded him that she was not healthy enough to have another baby" (Evans) So her mother-in-law, May Billie Sexton, assisted Sexton to get an illegal abortion. After the abortion I feel that Anne Sexton felt guilty. "The Abortion" has metaphors that relates to her life because, the use of north and south as good and bad, the use of Rumpelstiltskin, and the use of rough paths and smooth paths.
Around the year 1960, Anne Sexton found herself pregnant. As her husband Alfred Muller Sexton II, also known as Kayo, gained some excitement. Sexton gained guilt because, she was not sure if her child was Kayo's child. As it happened, Sexton said that she was not sane enough to have another one, which made her guilty. In the poem she describes a journey from north to south, which I think she is comparing a right and wrong situation. North, as a cardinal direction, has always been the direction where a person was told to travel; it symbolizes good or the direction toward safety, as south symbolizes bad, a path away from good.
