Topic > The use of syntactic, phonological and graphological devices in the poem Her Kind by Anne Sexton

Throughout history, various stereotypes and attitudes towards women have been created which vary from culture to culture. Most societies see women as an object with a specific role. The role is to be an obedient housewife, give birth to children, raise them and sit at home and cook meals for a beloved husband. The one who does everything is a 'perfect woman' and the one who rebels, does not meet social standards, is condemned and 'burned'. Anne Sexton's poem "Her Kind" is a feminist poem that deals with glorified negative stereotypes that women encounter every day. It tries to capture the idea of ​​the woman with different personalities, who doesn't like the restrictions and norms created around. The woman doesn't want to be what others want her to be, she just wants to be herself. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayIn this poem, Anne Sexton uses rich foreground elements to reveal how a woman, through different constructs of possessed witch, housewife, and adulteress, confronts dominant powers and reacts to the boundaries that arise. The poem is multi-layered with metaphors and symbols. The entire poem could itself be considered an extended metaphor; the speaker compares herself to a witch, with this she is a metaphor for every woman who shares her feelings and position in life. Several images are drawn to describe the "witch", who is an outcast in standard society. A dark atmosphere is created through the words "possessed, haunting, dreamy and evil and twelve-fingered". However, the use of the oxymoron "bad dreaming" indicates that the "witch" is not as evil as society tries to imagine her to be, because dreams are positive images as opposed to nightmares. The lines "your flames still bite my thigh / and my ribs crack where your wheels wind" symbolize the metaphor of how harsh the attitude and oppression was towards "different women". The metaphor is emphasized with the onomatopoeia 'ribs crack' which is used to create the impression of sensual immediacy, to make the reader feel somehow closer to that reality. ' is repeated in each stanza to create fluidity throughout the poem, defining the identity of the speaker in each stanza, who is confident in who she is and who she has been. The repetition of the words "I have", "Such a woman is" creates the feeling of a statement or even a mantra, with which it helps us feel closer to the issue raised in the poem. Through this, we can understand that each woman, in some form, is potentially the speaker's "gentle" witch, their hunts, mystical creatures and other metaphorical images of paranormal elements are conveyed through the numbers three and seven, which in the world magical are considered sacred. The poet uses them to remind us of the abnormality in which a woman exists when she is different. The three seven-line stanzas in a poem do not form any distinct term. It is not a sonnet, nor a villanelle. Lines with nine syllables and some with ten and eleven further distance the reader from convention. However, it has a tight rhyme and a loose rhythm. From lines like "they went out", "the black air", "out of mind", "the hot caves", "where your flames" we can see that the dominant trisyllables are of anapestic feet, which emphasizes the last syllable, making the poem sound a little faster in rhythm, but immediately slowing down the lines, through the choice of stressed syllables, i.e. the words 'outside', 'air', 'cave', 'flames', which have long vowels . He is slowed down even more by the abrupt use of the spondaic feet, 'his gentle ones',.