{"id":774,"date":"2018-12-12T17:57:01","date_gmt":"2018-12-12T22:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl113-f18\/?p=774"},"modified":"2018-12-13T16:17:36","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T21:17:36","slug":"selected-poems-of-anne-sexton-her-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl113-f18\/gibson\/selected-poems-of-anne-sexton-her-kind\/","title":{"rendered":"Selected Poems of Anne Sexton, &#8216;Her Kind&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Unlike Lorde\u2019s \u201cFantasy and Conversation,\u201d Anne Sexton\u2019s \u201cHer Kind\u201d directly confronts the image of the vilified witch. When listening to the live reading of \u201cHer Kind,\u201d the listener no longer hears an esteemed poet but is transported to a forest, sequestered by looming trees. In their wake, witches gather, singing incantations to transmogrify their world. Here, in this space, Sexton endeavors to show us that these are not mere <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">women<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, but beings able to control forces of nature that so many fail to understand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&quot;Her Kind&quot; read by Anne Sexton\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f559tdxFUaw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Throughout the poem, Sexton explores different figures that have been shunned by patriarchal society: the witch, a lonely old hag, and a woman on her way to her execution. The first stanza highlights typical deviant behaviors of witches, such as \u201chaunting the black air\u201d (18) or \u201cdreaming evil\u201d (18). While radical feminists attempt to reclaim the image of the witch and expel the negative stereotypes surrounding her, Sexton reinforces the mystical powers that so many feared. By doing so, she utilizes that fear and creates a kinship with those who feel misunderstood, the women who \u201c[are] not wom[en] quite\u201d (18). With Sexton claiming these negative images of women, she turns these stereotypes into something that feminists can use for their own gain. \u201cI have been her kind\u201d is woven throughout the poem, thus reclaiming the idea of the witch, and entreating others to do the same. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Source: <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Middlebrook, Diane Wood, editor. \u201cHer Kind.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Selected Poems of Anne Sexton<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, by <\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anne Sexton, Houghton Mifflin, 1988, p. 18<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">American Poetry Archives. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anne Sexton Reads &#8216;Her Kind&#8217; 1960<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">YouTube<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, YouTube, 19 February 2012<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, www.youtube.com\/watch?v=btz8RZHSQ2Q.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlike Lorde\u2019s \u201cFantasy and Conversation,\u201d Anne Sexton\u2019s \u201cHer Kind\u201d directly confronts the image of the vilified witch. When listening to the live reading of \u201cHer Kind,\u201d the listener no longer hears an esteemed poet but is transported to a forest, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl113-f18\/gibson\/selected-poems-of-anne-sexton-her-kind\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2049,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gibson"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl113-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl113-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl113-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl113-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2049"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl113-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl113-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":794,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl113-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions\/794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl113-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl113-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl113-f18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}