Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Anne Sexton’s "A Story for Rose on the Midnight Flight to Boston" opens with a line that encapsulates the poem's themes of loss and unfulfilled potential: "Somebody who should have been born is gone." This stark declaration sets the tone for a meditation on absence, grief, and the haunting sense of what might have been. The poem delves into the emotional aftermath of a loss so profound that it disrupts the natural order of things, as suggested by the imagery of the earth "puckered its mouth," and "each bud puffing out from its knot." These images evoke the beginning of life, growth, and potential, which are abruptly contrasted by the realization that "somebody who should have been born is gone."

The journey described in the poem takes the narrator through a landscape that mirrors her internal turmoil. Driving "south / Up past the Blue Mountains," the narrator traverses a landscape that is both physically challenging and symbolically significant. The Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania, with their "roads sunken in like a gray washboard," are depicted as a place where the earth itself is scarred and worn, reflecting the emotional scars of the narrator. The roads, "sunken in," suggest a sense of defeat or resignation, as if the very ground is weary from bearing the weight of existence.

The mention of "Pennsylvania humps on endlessly, / wearing, like a crayoned cat, its green hair," introduces a surreal, almost childlike image that contrasts with the poem's darker themes. The "crayoned cat" with "green hair" suggests a world that, on the surface, might seem playful or whimsical, but is undercut by the reality of the "dark socket from which the coal has poured." This image of the coal being extracted from the earth conjures a sense of something essential being taken away, leaving behind emptiness and desolation. It is a powerful metaphor for the loss of a life that should have been, a life that was meant to bring light and warmth, now reduced to a "dark socket."

The repetition of the line "Somebody who should have been born is gone" reinforces the poem's central grief, serving as a refrain that echoes the narrator's sorrow. The line's simplicity belies the depth of its emotional impact, emphasizing the finality of the loss and the void it has created.

As the poem progresses, the narrator's thoughts turn to the fragility of life itself, wondering "how anything fragile survives." This line reflects the narrator's existential questioning in the face of loss—how does life continue, how does anything endure when something so precious has been taken away? The mention of meeting "a little man, / not Rumpelstiltskin, at all, at all..." introduces an element of myth or fairy tale, but in a distorted form. Rumpelstiltskin, a character known for his ability to spin straw into gold, is a figure of transformation and cunning. However, in this context, the "little man" represents not magic or transformation, but rather the taking of "the fullness that love began."

The line "he took the fullness that love began" suggests a theft, a sense of something vital being stolen or lost. The fullness of love, which might have brought life and joy, is instead taken away, leaving emptiness in its wake. This could be interpreted as the loss of a child, the potential of a life that was never fully realized, or even the loss of innocence and hope.

In "A Story for Rose on the Midnight Flight to Boston," Anne Sexton explores the deep and haunting sorrow of unrealized potential, of lives that were meant to be but were cut short before they could begin. The poem’s imagery of a scarred landscape, a darkened earth, and the theft of love's fullness all contribute to a powerful meditation on grief and loss. Sexton captures the enduring pain of these experiences, the way they linger and shape our understanding of the world, and the way they can make even the most beautiful, vibrant landscapes seem shadowed by what is missing.

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