17 pages • 34 minutes read
Anne SextonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The speaker describes her house as having “four / garages” (Lines 3-4). With two parents, or two potential drivers in the house, the number four seems extravagant. Some residencies do not have any garages let alone four of them. Driving suggests freedom, but the adults are both at home in their respective rooms, stuck. These four garages also suggest extra storage, which is, indeed, a luxury for those in higher-income brackets. The young speaker is devoid, perhaps in companionship and love, but likely not of familial wealth. Furthermore, it is possible that these four garages go unused and are just empty space. As the poem describes, the speaker resides in a house with two parents who are all segregated from each other, likely causing her to feel very much alone.
The “wise stars” (Line 8) receive high status in this poem as they are positioned above the speaker literally and physically. The speaker mentions the stars more than once in the poem. While she merely mentions her parents, she talks to the stars, telling them “[her] questions” (Line 20). This sharing of personal longings and thoughts gives the stars a humanistic and, even more specifically, a companionate quality for a speaker otherwise known as “a lonely kid” (Line 2).
By Anne Sexton
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