Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Anne Sexton’s "Angel Food Dogs" is a haunting and surreal exploration of identity, suffering, and the complex relationship between the speaker and the figures of maternal and religious authority. The poem is marked by its intense imagery, blending the grotesque with the sacred, and its tone is one of both desperation and defiance.

The poem opens with a series of leaping, almost frenzied actions: "Leaping, leaping, leaping, / down, line by line." The repetition of "leaping" suggests a wild, uncontrollable energy, as if the speaker is being driven by some internal force. This energy quickly turns dark as the poem describes "growling at the cadavers" and "filling the holy jugs with their piss." The juxtaposition of sacred imagery ("holy jugs") with base, profane actions ("piss") sets the tone for the rest of the poem, where the sacred and the profane are constantly intertwined.

The image of "mauling the parents" and then "soft, kiss-soft, / and sobbing sobbing / into their awful dog dish" further complicates the relationship between the speaker and her parents. There is violence here, but also tenderness—an ambivalence that runs throughout the poem. The speaker seems to be caught between aggression and a yearning for softness, for connection.

Sexton then addresses the reader directly, asking, "No point? No twist for you / in my white tunnel?" This could be seen as a challenge, questioning the reader's expectations of meaning or narrative in the poem. The "white tunnel" may symbolize a search for purity or clarity that remains elusive.

The poem shifts as the speaker addresses "Mother," asking if she may use her as a pseudonym. This request to "take the dove named Mary / and shove out Anne" is a powerful moment, where the speaker seeks to subsume her own identity under the more sacred, more revered figure of Mary. This desire to be someone else—someone pure, holy, and untouchable—speaks to the speaker's struggle with her own identity, which she finds flawed and contaminated.

The repetition of "Mary, Mary, Mary full of grace" evokes the Hail Mary prayer, but here it is twisted, becoming a plea for transformation and escape. The speaker longs to replace her own identity with that of Mary, to be "white" and "blue," colors often associated with purity and the Virgin Mary. But there is also a recognition of the impossibility of this transformation; the speaker’s feet "hang in the noose," a symbol of her entrapment and the futility of her desire.

The poem’s imagery grows more surreal and visceral as the speaker describes wanting to be "a bee digging into an onion heart," a powerful metaphor for the painful process of introspection and self-discovery. The image of being "dug and squatted / long after death and its fang" suggests a deep, lingering pain, perhaps inflicted by the mother or by the speaker's own psyche.

"Hail Mary, full of me," the speaker proclaims, turning the prayer inward, making Mary a part of herself. This line suggests a fusion of identities, but it is not a peaceful or harmonious one. The speaker’s soul is described as festering with boils, a symbol of inner turmoil and unhealed wounds.

The poem’s conclusion, with its reference to "angel food dogs," brings together the sacred and the grotesque once again. The speaker seems to yearn for release, for the ability to "fly off" into her "terrified years," but this flight is fraught with fear and uncertainty. The image of climbing "the face of my kitchen dog" suggests a struggle with the mundane, the domestic, and the everyday, as the speaker attempts to transcend her reality.

In "Angel Food Dogs," Anne Sexton masterfully blends surreal, nightmarish imagery with deeply personal and confessional themes. The poem captures the speaker's intense inner conflict, her longing for transformation, and her struggle with the legacy of her upbringing and identity. It is a raw, unsettling exploration of the self, where the boundaries between the sacred and the profane, the self and the other, are constantly blurred and questioned.

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