Said+the+Poet

By Johnny Shapley, Joseph Song, Anna Rubakhina, and Maia Gersten
 * "Said the Poet to the Analyst"**

My business is words. Words are like labels, or coins, or better, like swarming bees. I confess I am only broken by the sources of things; as if words were counted like dead bees in the attic, unbuckled from their yellow eyes and their dry wings. I must always forget who one words is able to pick out another, to manner another, until I have got something I might have said... but did not. Your business is watching my words. But I admit nothing. I worth with my best, for instances, when I can write my praise for a nickel machine, that one night in Nevada: telling how the magic jackpot came clacking three bells out, over the lucky screen. But if you should say this is something it is not, then I grow weak, remembering how my hands felt funny and ridiculous and crowded with all the believing money.

=Video Interpretation (make sure to have the sound on)= media type="file" key="Poem Movie.mov" width="300" height="300"

Anne Gray Harvey Sexton was born in Newton, Massachusetts on 9 Nov. 1928. Her father was a successful wool manufacturer so she was able to live be raised within a comfortable middle class family. Unfortunately, she was repeatedly traumatized by her father’s alcohol abuse and her mother’s disrespect of Anne’s literary aspirations and she was forced to live with her aunt for comfort. She was sent to a boarding school called Rogers Hall in Lowell, Massachusetts where she first began to write poetry. During a traumatizing period in her life where one of her close family members died, she tried to commit suicide several times and during these years her therapists encouraged her to use writing as an outlet for her depression. She then joined many writing groups and finally published her first poem //To Bedlam and Part Way Back// in 1960 with great success. In 1962 she published one of her most popular poems ever //All My Pretty Ones.// As she glided through the years she composed many more poems including //The Book of Folly// and //45 Mercy Street//. Anne Sexton’s very short life ended on 4 Oct. 1974 at the age of 45.
 * Anne Sexton**

Martin, Linda Wagner. "Anne Sexton's Life." //Modern American Poetry//. University of Illinois, 18 Mar. 2001. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/sexton/sexton_life.htm


 * Unrecognized Vocab:**
 * Unbuckled - To set free


 * Notes:**


 * Title: Shows that the poem will be a discussion. Straightforward. Not unusual. Author seems to have an analyst perspective.
 * References: gambling, Las Vegas,
 * Importance: Shows how people put a lot of value into things (casinos), but don't get much back, and then later don't want to be reminded of what they have lost.
 * A lot of imagery used. Both paragraphs end with three words.
 * The two paragraphs are comparative. They compare two types of businesses.


 * Paraphrase:**

I work with words, that is what I do Words are very powerful they can hurt or help, as well as tell about the writer. I have to let my imagination flow freely I cannot think about it, I must let it happen.

Your work is to read my work. I will let you analyze my work, but I will not limit you with one perspective. I could write about gambling and how it was my inspiration, but if you said that this is not so, How would you know?


 * She is being critical.
 * "My business... swarming bees." - Poet describes her own profession
 * "I confess... dry wings." - Manner of her way of work
 * "I must... did not." - Describes the sensation she sets when words flow after one another to form a poem.
 * "your business... my words." - Poet describes job of analyst.


 * Analysis:**

Anna Johhny Maia Joseph