Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Anne Sexton’s poem "Twelve-Thousand-Day Honeymoon" is a poignant and visceral exploration of the inevitable decline of the body and the fading of passion after a long relationship. Through stark and unflinching imagery, Sexton captures the physical and emotional decay that accompanies the end of an intense love affair or marriage, where the once vibrant and life-affirming connection deteriorates into something painful and mournful. The title itself, with its reference to a "twelve-thousand-day honeymoon," suggests the passage of time—approximately 32 years—and the exhaustion of the initial, blissful phase of a relationship, replaced by a sense of loss and disillusionment.

The poem opens with the declarative statement, "The twelve-thousand-day honeymoon / is over," immediately signaling the end of a prolonged period of intimacy and joy. This is followed by a series of images depicting the physical decline of the body: "Hands crumble like clay, / the mouth, its bewildered tongue, / turns yellow with pain." The hands, once perhaps tender and expressive, are now compared to clay, brittle and lifeless. The tongue, an organ associated with communication and pleasure, is now "bewildered" and discolored by pain, indicating a loss of vitality and a deep sense of confusion or sorrow.

Sexton continues to describe the body in a state of decay: "the breasts with their doll teacups / lie in a grave of silence, / the arms fall down like boards." The breasts, once nurturing and possibly erotic, are now compared to "doll teacups," small and fragile, and have fallen into a "grave of silence," suggesting both physical and emotional death. The arms, which may have once embraced a lover, are now lifeless, "like boards," stiff and unyielding. This imagery evokes the stark contrast between the past, when the body was animated by love and desire, and the present, where it is reduced to something inert and mournful.

The poem then shifts to the speaker’s stomach, "so lightly danced over," which now "lies grumbling in its foul nausea." This description juxtaposes the light, perhaps sensual, touch of the past with the current state of discomfort and sickness. The stomach, which once responded to touch with pleasure, now reacts with nausea, reflecting the body's betrayal as it ages and decays. The "mound that lifted like the waves / again and again / at your touch / stops, lies helpless as a pinecone," further illustrates the loss of sexual vitality. The mound, once responsive and lively, is now compared to a pinecone, a natural object that is hard, dry, and unresponsive.

Sexton’s depiction of the vagina as "a clumsy, slips backward, / remembering, remembering," reinforces the theme of decline and loss. The vagina, which once rooted a "daisy" and welcomed "a river of sperm," is now awkward and backward-looking, caught in memories of past passion. The imagery of a daisy and a river of sperm suggests fertility and life, but now these symbols of vitality are contrasted with a sense of helplessness and a longing for what once was. The reference to "the god" who "beat his furious wings" evokes a sense of lost divinity or the fading of something once powerful and sacred.

The poem concludes with a focus on the heart, which "grabs a prayer out of the newspaper / and lets it buzz through its ventricle, its auricle, / like a wasp." This image of the heart, desperate and clinging to remnants of hope or faith, contrasts with the earlier descriptions of the body’s decay. The prayer, likened to a wasp, is both a source of pain and a source of furious, glowing energy. It moves through the heart’s "little highways," the pathways of blood and life, where "you remain." This final line suggests that despite the physical decay and the end of the honeymoon, the presence of the beloved lingers in the speaker's heart, even if only as a painful memory or a stinging reminder of what has been lost.

"Twelve-Thousand-Day Honeymoon" is a deeply introspective and somber reflection on the passage of time and the inevitable decline of both the body and the passionate love that once animated it. Through her vivid and often stark imagery, Sexton conveys the pain of losing the physical and emotional connection that once defined a relationship, while also acknowledging the enduring, if painful, presence of those memories in the heart. The poem is a powerful exploration of the ways in which love and loss are intertwined, and how even as the body fades, the emotional imprints of love remain, though transformed by time and experience.

Copyright (c) 2025 PoetryExplorer

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...