A Lifetime Of Guilt

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 12th grade April 2001

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A Lifetime of Guilt In Anne Sexton's "The Abortion" and Lucille Clifton's "The lost baby poem," both poets explore the effects of abortion. These two poems reveal the horrifying emotional trauma that a woman experiences when she decides to have an abortion. Through Sexton and Clifton's eloquent yet poignant words the reader obtains a feeling of what a woman suffers when making a decision to have an abortion. Feelings of regret and remorse dwell inside of a woman for the rest of her life when making a decision as grave as that. "The Abortion" and "The lost baby poem" both make use of imagery, repetition and symbolism as a means to communicate the feeling of giving up a child. These two poems show the reader that no matter how you communicate your poetry whether it follows a certain pattern like "The Abortion" does or if it is free verse like "The lost baby poem" the same message can be expressed just as strongly.

In "The Abortion," Anne Sexton communicates the pain and remorse of giving up a child to abortion. This poem has a distinct form: three line stanzas with an A-B-A rhyme scheme separated by a repeating sentence that breaks up the pattern every three stanzas. The repeating sentence, along with the title tells the reader directly what the poem is about "Somebody who should have been born is gone." The repetition of this sentence is a ringing in the speaker's ears of what she has done. It is a constant reminder of something that she can never take back. In the first three-line stanza, Sexton describes a "bud puffing from its knot" exemplifying the beginning of something, in this case a life. The second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth stanza, Sexton explains scenery that is typically...