Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Anne Sexton’s poem "Water" delves into the enigmatic and powerful nature of water, using it as a metaphor for the complexities of life, desire, and human experience. Through vivid and surreal imagery, the poem explores themes of love, loss, mystery, and the relentless, often overwhelming, force of nature. The water in the poem is both alluring and treacherous, a symbol of the depths of human emotion and the unknown forces that lie beneath the surface.

The poem begins with a striking image: "We are fishermen in a flat scene." This line sets a tone of simplicity and routine, yet the flatness suggests a lack of depth or meaning in the scene that the fishermen, perhaps symbolic of humans, inhabit. The act of fishing, a traditional and often solitary pursuit, implies a search for sustenance, meaning, or connection, yet the flatness of the scene hints at an underlying emptiness or monotony.

The next line, "All day long we are in love with water," introduces water as the central symbol of the poem. The fishermen's love for water suggests a deep, almost obsessive relationship with this element, which is both essential for life and mysterious in its vastness and depth. The fish they seek are described as "naked" and "always awake," emphasizing their vulnerability and the constant state of alertness required to survive in the water. The fish, "the color of old spoons and caramels," are both mundane and precious, evoking a sense of nostalgia and the passage of time. Their appearance as tarnished and worn objects hints at the weariness and endurance needed to navigate the waters of life.

The poem then shifts to a more surreal and ominous tone with the image of the sun reaching down but not revealing the floor: "The sun reaches down / but the floor is not in sight." This suggests an unknowable depth, where the bottom is hidden and only "the rocks are white and green," offering little comfort or certainty. The unknown nature of the depths beneath the water mirrors the mysteries and uncertainties of life and the human psyche.

The speaker's role as a singer who "sung all night for the last cargo of boys" introduces a melancholic and haunting element to the poem. The boys, perhaps sailors or soldiers, are now only represented by "mouths that float back later, / one by one, / holding a lady's wornout shoe." This image evokes a sense of loss and abandonment, as if these figures are remnants of the past, drifting back as ghosts, carrying with them a symbol of a lost or forgotten woman. The wornout shoe suggests a life once lived, now discarded and adrift, much like the souls of the boys.

The question, "Who knows what goes on in the halls below?" further emphasizes the mystery and danger of the unseen depths. The halls below are an unknown realm, possibly the depths of the subconscious or the afterlife, where secrets are kept and truths are hidden. The poem's tone becomes more eerie with the introduction of the loon, a bird known for its haunting calls, described as "falling in / across the top of the yellow lake / like a checkered hunchback / dragging his big feet." The loon, with its distorted, almost grotesque form, symbolizes the intrusion of the strange and unsettling into the otherwise serene scene. The loon’s yodeling as it goes under water, "like the first mate / who sways all night in his hammock, calling / I have seen, I have seen," suggests a witness to something profound and terrifying, a truth that can only be glimpsed and then submerged again.

The comparison "Water is worse than woman" introduces a gendered element to the poem, where water is personified as a seductive and consuming force, more dangerous than a woman. This comparison reflects the traditional association of women with mystery, emotion, and the unknown, but here water takes on these qualities to an even greater degree. It "calls to a man to empty him," highlighting its power to drain and overwhelm, to consume all that a person has, much like an insatiable desire or an unrelenting force of nature.

The image of "twelve princesses [who] dance all night, / exhausting their lovers, then giving them up," adds a mythological layer to the poem, possibly referencing the fairy tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, who secretly dance each night until their shoes are worn out. In this context, the princesses symbolize the allure and danger of desires that are pursued to the point of exhaustion, leaving those who seek them drained and abandoned. The connection between these princesses and the water suggests that, like the princesses, water entices and ultimately exhausts those who are drawn to it.

The poem concludes with the speaker’s acknowledgment: "I have known water." This statement carries the weight of experience, implying that the speaker has encountered and been shaped by the powerful, consuming nature of water. The simplicity of the statement belies the complexity of what it means to "know" water—to understand its beauty, danger, and mystery, and to have been both captivated and nearly destroyed by it.

In "Water," Anne Sexton uses the element of water as a multifaceted symbol for the depths of human emotion, the mysteries of life, and the dangers of desire. Through rich, surreal imagery and a tone that oscillates between the lyrical and the ominous, the poem explores the powerful and often overwhelming forces that shape our lives, leaving the reader with a sense of awe and unease at the vast, unknowable depths that lie beneath the surface of existence.

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