Joseph

Joseph Song Linder English 3rd Annie Sexton’s poem “Said the Poet to the Analyst” illustrates a poet’s description of their own job compared to that of an analyst in an almost artistic fashion. By weaving several metaphors and similes into the poem, Sexton gives the reader a clear mental of image of her opinions regarding the differences and similarities between her work and of the analyst. The images Sexton creates are beneficial since this allows for many interpretations of the poem due to the sometimes vague and unconventional contrasting of the respective professions. For example interpretations for lines 1 & 2, “Words are like labels, /or coins, or better, like swarming bees.” could differ from each other in various ways. Making sense of this poem comes down to how one interprets Sexton’s tone in the poem, and how one would make sense of the sometimes confusing imagery. The poet who is doing the speaking in the poem portrays their job in an interesting way. Lines 1-9 show how the poet describes their profession, “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.” Through this, the poet suggests that their job revolves around words, their enormity in numbers, and the way that the words seem to give life to each other. In lines 10-18 of “Said the Poet to the Analyst” the poet asserts her viewpoint on the job of the analyst. “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.” These lines offer an alternative view of the analyst’s job through the eyes of the poet. Though line 10, “Your business is watching my words” suggests a similarity between their jobs in the fact that they both work with words, the similarity stops there. The poet works with words in order give life to the words. Lines 15-18 describe how the analyst’s job differs, “But if you should say something it is not, / then I grow weak, remembering how my hands felt funny/ and ridiculous and crowded with all/ the believing money.” The comparison above between the analyst’s job and the feeling of money won leaving your hands conveys the feeling that analysts suck the life out of a poet’s work through their scrutinizing of their works. “Said the Analyst to the Poet” does not seem to possess a set in stone rhyming scheme. At times it follows an ABABCDCD rhyming scheme but subsequently a sentence that comes next fails to comply with it. However, despite the fact that the poem seems to not have a rhyming scheme, the poet’s thoughts are well organized. Sexton’s comparing and contrasting of poets and analysts is presents a literary Venn diagram. It shows their affinities as well as their differences within creative imagery and interesting metaphors and similes. The poem is still vague at times even though Sexton paints a vivid picture in the reader’s head. This vagueness can lead to many different interpretations of the poem, but it can be argued that all poems have a multitude of different interpretations. “Said the Poet to the Analyst” is no different.
 * “My Business is words” **

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