The Starry Night (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Anne Gray Harvey
- First Published: 1962
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry
- Subjects: Nature, Art or artists, Religion, Death or dying, Painting or painters, Moon or moons
“The Starry Night” shows Sexton's identification with another tortured and suicidal artist, Vincent van Gogh. The short, free-verse poem begins with an epigraph from one of van Gogh's letters to his brother. “That does not keep me from having a terrible need of—shall I say the word—religion,” van Gogh wrote. “Then I go out at night to paint the stars.” Sexton used epigraphs from a variety of works to begin her poems, and the epigraphs are often of major importance, pointing to a main theme of the poem that might otherwise be overlooked. Here she is indicating that she...
[The entire page is 533 words long]
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