Anna Who Was Mad Poem by Anne Sexton

Anna Who Was Mad

Rating: 3.4


Anna who was mad,
I have a knife in my armpit.
When I stand on tiptoe I tap out messages.
Am I some sort of infection?
Did I make you go insane?
Did I make the sounds go sour?
Did I tell you to climb out the window?
Forgive. Forgive.
Say not I did.
Say not.
Say.

Speak Mary-words into our pillow.
Take me the gangling twelve-year-old
into your sunken lap.
Whisper like a buttercup.
Eat me. Eat me up like cream pudding.
Take me in.
Take me.
Take.

Give me a report on the condition of my soul.
Give me a complete statement of my actions.
Hand me a jack-in-the-pulpit and let me listen in.
Put me in the stirrups and bring a tour group through.
Number my sins on the grocery list and let me buy.
Did I make you go insane?
Did I turn up your earphone and let a siren drive through?
Did I open the door for the mustached psychiatrist
who dragged you out like a gold cart?
Did I make you go insane?
From the grave write me, Anna!
You are nothing but ashes but nevertheless
pick up the Parker Pen I gave you.
Write me.
Write.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Charmaine Lava 11 October 2007

Sexton's deliberate self-conversation is revolting and gorgeous at the same time, quite a feat. She is so deep inside herself and so much the star of the repulsive show-in stirrups with a 'tour group' going through. The poem is the instrument for resolution of her debate with herself. It seems as if she is inside a nightmare in which all of the parts are herself. Each of us has had some variation of that dream but she explicates it thoroughly.

1229 2 Reply
L. K. Thayer 25 December 2007

'number my sins on the grocery list and let me buy' - she is a high wire act, so dangerous, no net, I gasp as she dares us to watch

113 3 Reply
* Sunprincess * 25 November 2013

I can honestly say this is one of the most interesting poems I have ever read beautifully penned on a very sad human condition of the mentally ill.. so heart-breaking...

9 1 Reply
Brian Jani 05 May 2014

This poem wad written superbly

6 3 Reply
Brian Mawadri 27 February 2017

Love this poem, for it was well written......................

3 1 Reply
Khairul Ahsan 28 September 2020

'From the grave write me, Anna! ' - A heart touching appeal!

0 0 Reply
Mahtab Bangalee 28 September 2020

Give me a report on the condition of my soul. Give me a complete statement of my actions ........ pick up the Parker Pen I gave you. Write me. Write....this the sense of sanity where poem dug out the true self by the complete statement of action and writing; superbly penned this poem

0 1 Reply
Sylvia Frances Chan 28 September 2020

Brilliantly created on a saddest theme, insanity. OR is it about her alter ego, Anna instead of her own name Anne. I cannot say than Great Poetess Anne Sexton was truly great creating magnificent poems about the self. She committed suicide. Very tragic. She is a great Poetess. Congratulations to her family for having won this great Poem Hunter Prize The Modern Poem Of The Day! .

0 0 Reply
Deluke Muwanigwa 28 September 2020

Good gothic stuff. Ana is in the asylum or dead now. So answer the questions in the poem. Did you? Did you? Did you make Ana insane. If Anna cant stand for herself because you did God will do. So you are not off the hook. Did you? Did you?

0 0 Reply
Dr Antony Theodore 28 September 2020

Am I some sort of infection? Did I make you go insane? Did I make the sounds go sour? Did I tell you to climb out the window? Forgive. Forgive. A good message. tony

0 0 Reply
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Anne Sexton

Anne Sexton

Newton, Massachusetts
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