From various interviews, May Sarton gets the description of being an exuberant person. She lived in an isolated cottage probably giving most influence in her poetry. She is naturally an attentive person with strong personalities and alertness to her surroundings. Starton believed that poetry is an exceptional way of expression. Every vision in life can only be fully expressed through poetry according to her and that is why she cared so much about her poems, and remained passionate about them (Karen Saum 32). In Sartons poetry, there is a confirmation to her comment of about poetry as a concept that does not assume change and growth coexistent. She views poetry as a captivation of an instance for capturing important moments with no defined direction for growth and change. The aspect of love comes out as a strong theme in most of her poetry. She demystifies the problems which couples face in their marriages giving chance to the married to think about the decisions they make regarding the lifetime step. Starton brings out the fading of love in relationships reckoning the fact that when true love can no longer suffice, hope is lost, and people feel a sense of desperation engulfing them (Karen Saum 32). Sarton has a muse that guides her poetry with intriguing focus of the world. Her poetry constitutes people she may have known in her life or imaginary creations but what matters is the source of ignition to writing.
Her poem a divorce of lovers is as a result of a failed affair. Poetry possesses a subconscious touch from a writer. There are occasions when an idea originates from the subconscious, after which a poet utilizes the information to develop the form. Just a single line can act as an inspiration leading to the development of a whole poem. Metaphors used in poetry simply give an explanation to experiences and feelings. When Sarton uses metaphors in her poetry, she gets the knowledge of the exact experiences she has undergone and the feelings such experiences arouse in her work. Leaves before winds are a poem that makes love for those who are not ready for commitments bearable. It is about being in it and not making yourself a slave of the love affair. She bluntly puts it in the second last line of the last stanza by saying that non committal relationships come and go as they please. It is a diffuse of fragility of the heart and display of emotions among lovers who can not get into marriage. This reflects even in her novels as she decides to write about life with cancer after proving she was safe from it in the bid of demystifying the feeling she could experience if she had just a few month to survive from a cancer attack. Poetry is like a guide that defines direction of the poet as well as for the poet. It brings about the realization of hidden feelings that can only be met at a moment. Creating a lyric poem like that of the Unicorn therefore becomes a practiced art that delivers the poet to an unchangeable point (Karen Saum 32).
Some of the poets who have mentored Startons poetic literacy are such as, Millay, Elinor Wylie and Louise Bogan, all of who hold a lyric modeling for her. Starton mainly had French influences in her poetry with Jean Dominique being a major mentor of her poetry aspirations. In plants dreaming deep, Starton describes her embrace of American life after childhood instability initiated by the war which drove her and her family from Belgium. There are expressions of love in most of Startons poetry bringing out her cry for understanding. There is the need for full expression of feelings brought out in her poems definitely brought out as a result of her personal experiences as a lesbian in a conservative society. People fear to feel expressly and worse of all is the fear of expressing feelings. In the poem halfway to silence there is an awful air with a 65 year old woman writing a love poem passionately to a fellow woman (Ella Strong Denison Library).
The ambiguity of assumption of lack of feelings as age progresses come out in the poem ‘Old Lovers’ when the characters can do nothing much than admiring the young with grand bodies that they themselves no longer have. It brings out the essence of sex as a communication from the soul through bodies, making the process to be a forever experience. Her poetry have a mysterious muse that one can not talk about easily. It is true to say that these poems have metaphysical qualities to represent time and love. In leaves after the winds, there comes out a clear message of no commitment to love. She talks of those that come are the once that go trying to mean that there is no foundation in certain love affairs. When she talks of ‘and know your beauty was not cast for me’ it comes as a display of no future but they stick together without having to commit or leave each other forever. Over years, the forms which Sarton use to express her poetry changes. She tries everything from prose, lyrics to her old age when she starts to reflect old aging troubles in aging (Poetry Foundation).
Work cite
Ella Strong Denison Library. Guide to the May Sarton Collection. http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php CISOROOT=/gmc&CISOPTR=59. 9 November 2011.
Karen Saum. The Paris Review. May Sarton. The Art of PoetryNo. 32 http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3040/the-art-of-poetry-no-32-may-sarton. 9 November 2011. Interview.
Poetry Foundation. Biography, May Sarton 1912-1995. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/may-sarton
