Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Anne Sexton's poem "Not So. Not So" grapples with the human desire to find God in every aspect of life and the simultaneous frustration that comes with the limitations of this quest. Through the poem's exploration of divine presence and absence, Sexton confronts the tension between human longing for connection with the divine and the elusiveness of that connection.

The poem begins with a series of declarative statements that reflect the speaker's intense yearning to connect with God: "I cannot walk an inch / without trying to walk to God." This opening immediately situates the reader in the speaker's existential struggle—every action, no matter how small, is charged with the intent to reach out to the divine. The repetition of "I cannot" underscores the speaker's relentless pursuit, suggesting that this quest is both a compulsion and a necessity.

Sexton then moves through various images where the speaker attempts to locate God: "He is in the graves of the horses," "He is in the swarm, the frenzy of the bees," and "He is in the potter who makes clay into a kiss." These images span the natural world, human activity, and even the urban landscape of Boston, indicating the speaker's belief that God is omnipresent. The specificity of these images—horses' graves, swarming bees, the act of mending a pantsuit—suggests that the speaker is seeking God not only in the traditionally sacred but also in the mundane and profane aspects of life.

However, each time the speaker asserts God's presence in these things, the poem's refrain, "Not so! Not so!" interrupts, rejecting these assertions. This refrain, presumably the voice of heaven or divine judgment, denies the speaker's claims, creating a sense of disillusionment. The repeated negation of the speaker's attempts to locate God emphasizes the difficulty, if not impossibility, of pinning down the divine in specific, tangible forms. It also reflects the frustration and confusion that accompany spiritual seeking, where the expected revelations are met instead with denials.

The poem reaches its emotional peak when the speaker questions, "Is not God in the hiss of the river?" and "Is not God in the ant heap, / stepping, clutching, dying, being born?" These questions reflect a universal human struggle to find meaning and divinity in the cycles of life and death, in the natural processes that surround us. Yet again, the refrain "Not so! Not so!" denies these connections, leaving the speaker—and by extension, the reader—without clear answers.

The final stanza shifts the focus from the external world to the internal, as the speaker is advised to "Look to your heart / that flutters in and out like a moth." This metaphor of the heart as a fluttering moth suggests fragility, restlessness, and the constant movement of the human spirit in search of something greater. The speaker is reminded that "God is not indifferent to your need," which introduces a note of hope or reassurance. Yet, the concluding line—"You have a thousand prayers / but God has one"—suggests a fundamental disconnection between human desires and divine will. The idea that God has "one" prayer, in contrast to the speaker's "thousand," implies that God's perspective is singular, focused, and perhaps beyond human understanding.

"Not So. Not So" is a poem that encapsulates the paradox of spiritual seeking: the intense desire to find and connect with God, coupled with the frustration of divine elusiveness. Sexton uses the refrain "Not so! Not so!" to highlight the limitations of human attempts to define or locate the divine in specific terms. The poem ultimately suggests that while God may not be found in the places or forms we expect, there is still a presence—subtle, perhaps ungraspable—that responds to our deepest needs. The final admonition to look within, to the heart, offers a direction for this search, albeit one that acknowledges the complexity and mystery of the divine.

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