Young

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1962

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Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Further Reading & Resources

Related Poems

“All My Pretty Ones” by Anne Sexton (1962)

In this poem with a title influenced by Macduff’s mourning line in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the speaker directly addresses her father as she goes through his belongings post-death, influenced by Sexton’s loss of her mother and then her father shortly afterward. The father, who is behind a “half shut” (Line 11) window in “Young,” is again reduced to objects in “All My Pretty Ones,” including “a gold key, [a] half of a woolen mill / twenty suits from Dunne’s, an English Ford” (Lines 5-6). As both poems are part of the same collection, the reader can see the maturity of the speaker from youth to adulthood and how the relationship between a daughter and her father can take many twists and turns.

“Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath (1965)

In this free-verse poem by fellow Confessional poet Sylvia Plath from Ariel, the speaker could easily represent an adult version of the younger speaker in Sexton’s “Young.” The speaker identifies herself as “only thirty” (Line 20) and mentions that she has “nine times to die” (Line 21). The introspective sense of internal self and references to the external body with hints of melancholy in “Lady Lazarus” evoke similar tones and themes as in the Sexton poem, which introduces the speaker as “a lonely kid” (Line 2).

“Daddy” by Sylvia Plath (1965)

This famous poem from Sylvia Plath’s Ariel collection highlights the speaker’s fraught relationship with her father, as she compares him to a Nazi with his “neat mustache” (Line 43) and likening herself to a Jew. While the speaker of “Young” does not express such extreme statements about her father, his positioning in the partially shut window suggests his inaccessibility to her. As both Sexton and Plath are Confessional poets, autobiographical details are present here, suggesting their troubled experiences growing up with their own distant fathers in 1940s America.

“In Celebration of My Uterus” by Anne Sexton (1969)

In this free-verse poem from Sexton’s later collection of work Love Poems, the speaker declares herself to be “in celebration of the woman I am” (Line 12), which is the more mature version of the speaker in “Young,” who is in a body that is “not a woman’s yet” (Line 19). Once the speaker of “Young” comes into her own, she might be able to see beyond her own backyard and find hope and solidarity with the many women around the world whom the speaker references in “In Celebration of My Uterus”: “One is in a shoe factory cursing the machine / one is at the aquarium tending a seal” (Lines 28-29).

“Song” by Adrienne Rich (1973)

In this free-verse poem from Confessional poet Adrienne Rich’s collection Diving Into the Wreck, the speaker addresses the question of whether she is lonely or not, harkening back to the loneliness the speaker of “Young” feels lying in her backyard. Unlike the uncertainty and awkwardness of the speaker of Sexton’s poem, the speaker in “Song” knows her worth: “[…]know it’s neither / ice nor mud nor winter light / but wood, with a gift for burning” (Lines 24-26).

Further Literary Resources

Critical Essays on Anne Sexton edited by Linda Wagner-Martin (1989)

Various writers and critics, including Sexton’s autobiographer Diane Middlebrook, examine the work and circumstances surrounding Sexton’s contributions under the umbrellas of women in poetry and Confessional poetry. For example, one essay provides context for the influence of the Confessional poetry movement, and short story writer/novelist Joyce Carol Oates spends time on the concept of self-portrait within Sexton’s letters and poetry, which is a precursor for a later publication. In 2004, Lois Ames, Sexton’s friend, and Linda Gray Sexton, Sexton’s daughter, published Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters, which brought even more of Sexton’s eccentric personality to life in her very own words alongside family photos.

Anne Sexton: a biography by Diane Middlebrook (1992)

Nominated for a National Book Award and approved by Sexton’s daughter Linda, this controversial biography provides unpleasant details from Sexton’s childhood that led to how she behaved as an adult woman with mental health and alcohol problems and how she chose to raise her own children. The book addresses Sexton’s alleged abuse of her daughters, based on confidential tapes between Sexton and her therapist. Amidst the controversy, the book shows Sexton’s need for writing to remain alive.

Half in Love: Surviving the Legacy of Suicide: A Memoir by Linda Gray Sexton (2011)

As the oldest daughter of Anne Sexton, Linda Gray Sexton writes about her various experiences with suicide, first with her mother’s death and then her own attempts. Her story ends in life, rather than death, as she tries to break the suicide cycle of her family with help from her spouse, children, and therapists. In 2009, she wrote an op-ed piece “A Tortured Inheritance,” two years prior to the publishing of her memoir, discussing the family legacy of suicide, comparing her situation to that of Nicholas Hughes, the son of poet Sylvia Plath who had recently died by suicide as his mother did.

The Business of Words: Reassessing Anne Sexton edited by Amanda Golden (2016)

Using archival materials and manuscripts, various essay contributors to this book, including critics and poets, frame Sexton’s work and subject matter in new lights, considering her lack of a college degree, use of media attention and celebrity status, her manner of presenting her poetry with alcohol and pills, and the connections she made with her artistic contemporaries.

“Read Anne Sexton’s Response to Her Worst-Ever Review” by Emily Temple (2017)

In this Lit Hub article, Emily Temple mentions Deliverance author James Dickey’s terrible review of Sexton’s All My Pretty Ones in the New York Times Book Review in 1963. Temple cites some of Dickey’s original language: “Her attitude, widely cited as ‘compassionate,’ is actually a curious compound of self-deprecatory cynicism and sentimentality-congratulating-itself-on-not-being caught…” An admirer of his work, Sexton felt the sting of this review. It turns out that Sexton did eventually meet and correspond with Dickey, suggesting her desire for a friendly rather than a sexual relationship, but her letters to others suggest that she considered him to be her nemesis.