After Auschwitz Analysis Essay
Anne Sexton s poem, After Auschwitz, struck me as a piece of writing that was, at
first, difficult to interpret. There is no evident rhyming scheme, or sentences that
clearly express what the poem is about. However, Sexton does incorporate the use
of metaphorical and repetitive language. One of the earliest lines reads, Each day
/ each Nazi/ took, at 8:00 AM, a baby/ and sautГ©ed him for breakfast/ in his frying
pan. (Lines 4 8) One of the easiest things to note is the use of past tense verbiage
such as took and sautГ©ed which indicates the events in the poem occurred after the
era of Jewish concentration and death camps as the title suggests. In regards to
metaphors, something thing that seemed odd about this line was the... Show more
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/ Man is a flower/ that should be burnt... (Lines 11 13) Because of the mention of
Nazis in the beginning of the poem, I interpreted man as either being Nazis
themselves, or possibly mankind as a whole since there is language in the poem
specifying this. Words such as evil and burnt carry connotations that relate to anger
because they reference that whatever the intended man is, because it is evil, it
deserves to perish. Another interesting aspect regarding the same lines is that there
appears to be a contrast. A line further along the poem that resonates the same
structure reads, Man....is not a temple but an outhouse, I say aloud. (Lines 21 25) A
flower, bird, and temple are all things typically regarded as beautiful, majestic, or
sacred. However, each is in conjunction with something that is vile, impure, or
disgusting. Evidence is in the phrases should be burnt, full of mud, and an outhouse.
Since all of these phrases are descriptions of man, I interpreted this again as man
meaning either being humankind, or referencing to the Nazis. To an extent, some of
humankind seems themselves as flowers, birds, and temples, meaning some of
humankind sees itself as inheritors that rule over and build upon the earth. However,
the author speaks that humans are more as abominations deserve to burn or be
anilhillated Man, in this context, could also refer to the