On Spirituality and Femininity in the Poetry of Anne Sexton the Volume “The Awful Rowing Toward God”

Bavjola Gami Shatro
Aleksandër Moisiu University

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide a reading of the volume of poetry “The Awful Rowing Toward God” by Anne Sexton in the attempt to analyze the dimension of femininity and spirituality, which are expressed through the poetic images of longing, suffering and searching. Sexton is a representative poet of contemporary American poetry whose work meditated extensively on femininity and the spiritual dimension of the self as a core aspect of her personality. Considering that contemporary American poetry embodies several aspects of the Puritan tradition of poetry the presence of poets that could be categorized as personal-confessional poets –Anne Sexton being one of them‒ underlines the dimension of intimacy and personalization which is one of the most important traits of American poetry after World War II. This is one of the main aspects we are going to analyze in Sexton’s poetry since it represents a joint point between femininity and spirituality. Our viewpoint is that the successful and very organic blending of these two realities represents one of the main characteristics of her poetry and distinguishes her among either feminist or religious poets. By means of imagery related to this aspect of the self, Sexton meditates and exposes several metaphysical issues that deserve thorough analysis. Through text analysis and a cultural approach there will be analyzed the intertwining of spiritual concepts and femininity that define her authentic approach to the world in/and poetry.


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