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= = = "The Fury of Overshoes" by Anne Sexton (1974) =

They sit in a row outside the kindergarten, black, red, brown, all with those brass buckles. Remember when you couldn't buckle your own overshoe or tie your own shoe or cut your own meat and the tears running down like mud because you fell off your tricycle? Remember, big fish, when you couldn't swim and simply slipped under like a stone frog? The world wasn't yours. It belonged to the big people. Under your bed sat the wolf and he made a shadow when cars passed by at night. They made you give up your nightlight and your teddy and your thumb. Oh overshoes, don't you remember me, pushing you up and down in the winter snow? Oh thumb, I want a drink, it is dark, where are the big people, when will I get there, taking giant steps all day, each day and thinking nothing of it?



Way 1: First Impressions
My first impression of this poem is that it is about an adult who is reflecting on the past. It begins with "They sit in a row/ outside the kindergarten,/ black, red, brown, all/ with those brass buckles" (1-4). Maybe this adult is passing by and seeing the young kindergartners, or is a parent, relative, or caregiver, coming to the kindergarten to pick up their child. This adult sees these young children with their brass buckles, and begins to remember the days when s/he was young, "Remember when you couldn't/ buckle your own/ overshoe/ or tie your own/ shoe" (lines 5-9).

Throughout the poem the narrator is reflecting on the past, remembering different things from childhood. "Remember, big fish,/ when you couldn't swim/ and simply slipped under/ like a stone frog?/ The world wasn't/ yours. It belonged to/ the big people" (lines 15-20). In these lines, she's referring to "big fish" as a metaphor for herself, she's "big" now, and remembering when she couldn't fend for herself. The world belonged to the adults and she relied on them for everything.

In the end she says " Oh thumb,/ I want a drink,/ it is dark,/ where are the big people,/ when will I get there,/ taking giant steps/ all day,/ each day/ and thinking/ nothing of it" (lines 37-46)? This ending shows the fear of the narrator, at first it sounds like as a child she was longing to be with the "big people" but now that she looks back, she can't believe the giant steps she took to adulthood and never thought anything about it.

Way 2: Engaging with the Text
The name of this poem is "The Fury of Overshoes." However, I don't feel any "fury" in this poem. When I read or hear this poem I feel sadness and disappointment. There is no rhyme scheme to this poem. The way Anne Sexton wrote this poem it almost feels like it is "dragging on." It's written in choppy sentences that go from line to line. When I read it, I almost feel that it's written very monotone and depressing. It feels like a child who would be complaining, and going "on and on" about how they are upset. I feel that Sexton was trying to give this feeling of sadness and disappointment when writing this poem. As far as I can tell it doesn't follow any rules of form, trying to convey this child-like mentality that the narrator is feeling and missing. I found a [|video on youtube] of Anne Sexton reciting this poem, I think you will see what I mean about her saying it very monotone and depressing.

Way 3: A Point about Form and Its Relationship to Content
This poem doesn't appear to follow any specific rules of form. Sexton doesn't use any regular meter, or follow a rhyme scheme. Having said that, I believe this poem is written in free verse. Sexton expressed her ideas freely throughout this poem without having to follow any specific rules. This poem expresses the narrator's desire to be a child again. When reading this poem, you get the feel of a child, and child-like wishes and behaviors. Children don't typically follow rules, children run freely, and for the most part, do as they wish unless they are told otherwise. A child like behavior is one of happiness, freedom, and expression. I believe that by Sexton using free verse, she is trying to convey this idea of her child-like mind, longing for the days when she was physically a child.

Way 3: Another Point about Form and Its Relationship to Content
This poem has a lot of line breaks, each line is very short, and the thought is drug out into the next line. Sometimes one thought is spread out over a lot of lines. I don't see any real pattern in the sentences that would be an attempt to draw emphasis on certain words, to me, it's more of an attempt to look like thoughts were just scribbled down, and the author was scrambling around with the thoughts in her head. This may also be the author's attempt to show "fury." The name of the poem is "The Fury of Overshoes," so in this sense, the author may be furious with the fact that she is older now, and is missing her childhood days. The short sentences may show her short temper and the way she is upset, she's writing fast and short, with fury.



This poem has quite a few instances of figurative language, one of the first I noticed was in lines 11 and 12 "and the tears/running down like mud". This is an example of a simile being used to compare the tears to mud. Sexton's use of the word "like" is an indicator of the simile. Right before these two lines, the poem is discussing all the things that couldn't be done when you were younger. Lines thirteen and fourteen go on to say "because you fell off your/ tricycle?" So she is comparing the tears that a child would cry after falling off their tricycle to mud. The denotative meaning of mud is "wet, soft earth or earthy matter" (dictionary.com). Mud is dirty and thick and is usually on the ground after rain. Most people don't enjoy mud, they see it as dirty and unwanted. You usually tell your children to stay out of the mud. The denotative meaning of tear is a "fluid appearing in or flowing from the eye as the result of emotion" (dictionary.com). Tears are clear and light. They don't cause any staining or color on the skin. They are very clean just like water. People can cry and cause tears as a result of happiness or sadness. Tears are not always a negative thing. When Sexton says the "the tears ru[n] down line mud" she is discussing the deep upset that this child is feeling. If you literally cried tears that were mud they wouldn't "run" down, they would be very slow and thick and cover your face; you would be completely dirty and uncomfortable. I think the point of describing the tears as running down like mud is to show the overreaction of the child. The child was so distraught over this fall, that they didn't just cry light, clear tears; they cried huge, dirty, overreactive tears. I think this simile is used to show the pettiness of childhood. This poem is looking back on childhood as a longing for the days past. The narrator is making the point that she wishes she could go back when she was a child and the things that upset her the most were when she fell off her tricycle. Now as an adult things are so much worse and more serious. You wish that falling off your tricycle were the only problem that you had. The rest of this poem goes along the same lines of this phrase, by showing the overreaction and simpleness of childhood. Sexton makes references to "nightlights" (29) and "thumbs" (31). She is showing how she wishes she could go back to the simple life; the way it used to be.



Lines 15-18 state "Remember, big fish,/ when you couldn't swim/ and simply slipped under/ like a stone frog"? This is another example of a simile being used to compare a big fish that couldn't swim, to a stone frog. The evidence of the simile is obvious again by the use of the word "like." However, it can also be looked at as a metaphor because this poem is about the rememberance of human childhood and the narrator is comparing a big fish that couldn't swim to a child who is an adult now that couldn't walk. The denotative meaning of fish is "any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales" (dictionary.com). Fish can come in many different colors and sizes and they have to stay in the water in order to breathe. Fish spend most of their time swimming. The denotative meaning of swim is "to move in water by movements of the limbs, fins, tail" (dictionary.com). If you were not "swimming" in the water, you would sink right to the bottom. The constant motion of swimming is what keeps humans from sinking to the bottom of a body of water. Fish must swim in the water or else they wouldn't be able to go anywhere. If a fish couldn't swim, it would be the equivalent of a human or child not being able to walk or crawl. Like a baby, the fish would rely on someone else to help them get around. The denotative meaning of stone is "the hard substance, formed of mineral matter, of which rocks consist" (dictionary. com). Stones are heavy and hard. Stones are inanimate objects, they can't breathe, move or swim. If you were to get hit with a stone it would hurt immensely. If you threw a stone into a body of water it would sink right to the bottom. The denotative meaning of frog is "any tailless, stout-bodied amphibian" (dictionary.com). Frogs typically have moist, smooth skin. Like fish, frogs can swim, however, they don't have to be underwater in order to breathe. Frogs spend time on land as well; they hop when they are on land.

Focusing on the simile, a fish that wasn't able to swim would be helpless and sink right to the bottom of a body of water. This is like what a stone frog would do. A stone frog would be heavy and hard and would slip right to the bottom of a body of water. A stone frog wouldn't be like a real frog because a stone frog wouldn't be able to move or breathe or swim. This is where the metaphor comes in, the narrator isn't literally talking about a fish and a stone frog. The narrator is using this statement as a metaphor for asking an adult if they can remember when they couldn't walk and were helpless and at the mercy of others. Like the fish that couldn't swim and simply fell to the bottom of the water, the baby that couldn't walk simply stayed there limp and helpless. The narrator again is showing us the simpleness of childhood and the things that seem so natural and easy to us now, like walking, used to be something that was so important and an accomplishment in childhood.



Way 4: Unpacking Another Instance of Figurative Language
 Lines 23-27 state "Under your bed/ sat the wolf/ and he made a shadow/ when cars passed by/ at night". This is an example of symbolism. The author is using a wolf as a symbol of the fear that children feel of the "monsters under their bed". The denotative meaning of a wolf is "any of several large carnivorous mammals of the genus //Canis//, of the dog family" (dictionary.com). Wolves typically scare children. A lot of children are scared of dogs that are pets, so a wolf would be very terrifying for a child if it were close to them or if they saw one. The denotative meaning of shadow is "a dark figure or image cast on the ground or some surface by a body of intercepting light" (dictionary.com). Shadows are made by someone or something that is interfering with the light. Children are typically intrigued by shadows. They wonder where they come from, and they know that something has to be present for that shadow to be there. The denotative meaning of night is "the period of darkness between sunset and sunrise" (dictionary.com). Most children get very scared at night because of the dark. Children are typically scared of the dark, so nighttime tends to bring on a lot of fears of monsters and scary things happening. When the narrator says that the wolf sat under the bed casting shadows, we can see the fear that the child would be feeling. The child would see a shadow of a wolf, which would cause fear, and then that it is at night adds to the extra fear that the child is already feeling. The fact that Sexton uses a wolf, we know that obviously a wolf isn't really sitting under your bed. She uses this wolf as a symbol of this fear. She is kind of making fun of the child's ridiculous fear that there could be a wolf under their bed. She again is looking at the simple things that would fear and upset children, longing for those days. She wishes that the only thing she was scared of is shadows and wolves under her bed. As an adult she has much more serious things to be scared of and upsest about.



Way 5: Analyzing the Setting
  This poem doesn't have an exact place where the setting takes place. It does make some references that give you a feeling of a dark and dreary setting. I see these as more of an indicator of the narrator's state of mind. One example would be in lines 23-27 "Under your bed/ sat the wolf/ and he made a shadow/ when cars passed by at night." This gives a feeling of a dark and dreary setting. You can see the darkness and stillness with the wolf and the shadow. I think this can add to the rest of the poem's feeling because of the narrator's deep longing for the past and going back to those days. She is in a dark state of mind right now. Another instance of this dark setting was seen in lines 37-40 "Oh thumb,/ I want a drink,/ it is dark,/ where are the big people." This gives another setting description of the narrator's state of mind being scared and dark and longing for those days. She is using these descriptions from the past to relate to her life now.



Way 6: Identifying and Analyzing Point of View
 This poem is written in first person point of view. The first person point of view is obvious through Sexton's use of the words "I" and "me." The narrator is a person who is looking back into the past and the way that she talks it is like she is talking to her overshoes. She is asking her overshoes if they remember her, "Oh overshoes,/ don't you/ remember me" (32-34). The way that she speaks we learn about her constant yearning for the days when she was younger. She even speaks to the audience at one point saying "Remember when you couldn't/ buckle your own/ overshoe/ or tie your own/ shoe" (5-9). I'm not sure if this poem is really affected by a limitation of first person. There isn't really any other characters in this story that we would benefit from knowing their thoughts or insights. This poem is more focused just on the thoughts of the narrator and no one else. I don't believe this poem could be written in any other point of view than first person and still be effective. This poem is the complete thoughts and ideas of one character. If this poem were written by a third person than we wouldn't really be able to know the exact deep thoughts of the narrator. A third person's point of view wouldn't even be able to touch the depth of the first person. The first person point of view is the only effective way to know the narrators exact thoughts.



Way 7: Analyzing Complexity, Ambiguity, & Difficulty
I think one of the main difficulties of this poem is when the narrator constantly changes who/ what she is talking to. She begins with talking to the audience in lines 5-9 when she says "Remember when you couldn't/ buckle your own/ overshoe/ or tie your own/ shoe." She then goes on and talks to a fish in lines 15-20, overshoes in lines 32-36, and her thumb in lines 37-39. This is constantly changing the feeling of the poem and the point that she is trying to get across. It makes us think about what her purpose is for talking to the different items and why she chose to say it that way. It also made it a little more difficult to figure out the point of view that the narrator is using. In lines 15-18, she begins by saying "[r]emember, big fish, when you couldn't swim/ and simply slipped under/ like a stone frog?" Right after that lines 19-20 state, "The world wasn't/ yours." Is she still talking to the fish or has she now gone back to the audience? This is one instance where her constant switch of who she is speaking to adds to the complexity and difficulty of the poem.

One example of ambiguity in this poem is in lines 19-22, "The world wasn't/ yours./ It belonged to/ the big people." These lines could be seen as having a double meaning. The first possible meaning could be the narrator telling the frog, that she was just talking to in the previous sentences, that the world is not theirs because they are an insignificant frog that cannot swim and this world belongs to the humans, the "big people." These lines could also be interpreted as the narrator speaking to the audience and telling them that when they were younger and couldn't walk like the frog that couldn't swim, the world was not theirs, or they had no control over it. This could be the narrator's way of saying that as a young child you have little to no control of your world, the adults, "big people," are the ones that are in charge and you are at the mercy of others. This adds to the overarching meaning of the poem because it is about the carefree life of childhood. It is about the trivial things in a child's life, and the fact that when you were younger the world "wasn't yours" adds to the carefree nature of that state.

Horizontal Thinking: Connecting the Text to Wider Contexts Way 8: Considering Canonicity
The criteria used to judge a piece of literature's eligibility for canonicity are aesthetic value, historical or cultural significance, societal values, and its longevity or influence on other literary works. I think that one of the major criteria that this piece meets is historical or cultural significance. "The Fury of Overshoes" is significant not only in 1974 but today as well. In our culture children are seen as pure, carefree and innocent. In this poem, the narrator is looking back on the pure days of childhood and longing for them. I think that this is something that many adults in our society can relate with. As we age, we begin to look back on the carefree days of childhood and wish that for once we could go back and feel like that again. We wish we could leave the cares of our life behind and be like a child again. This also pertains to its longevity. I believe that this is a poem that will always be relevant no matter what decade it is. People will always long for the days of childhood and wish that there were a way to go back even for a little while. I think a major part of longevity is that future generations can relate to the subject matter. If it is a poem written that someone in a hundred years will have no knowledge of, then it probably won't be around for very long. However, if it is subject matter that will always be relevant, it has a much better chance of sticking around for longer.



Way 9: Biographical Context
When reading Anne Sexton's biography I begin to connect the dots between her life experiences and this poem. I believe that knowledge of Anne Sexton's biography will help to illuminate and understand this poem. "Much of Anne Sexton's poetry is autobiographical and concentrates on her deeply personal feelings, especially anguish" (GaleNet). Sexton suffered from mental illness and even spent several stays in a mental hospital. I believe that knowledge of Sexton's illness can help us understand the "free verse" and the form, or lack thereof, that Sexton uses in this poem. "The Fury of Overshoes" is written in a way that it flows from one line to the next. It has random line breaks and short lines. When reading this poem it seems like it drags on and on. Many mentally ill patients have a lot of thoughts in their heads. They have a lot going on and even can complain of not being able to stop thinking and relax or make the "voices" be quiet. When Sexton writes her poem like this we can just imagine her trying to hurry up and get all of her thoughts out. She goes from one thought to the next without much transition and this is very telling of how her brain was probably moving too fast for her to write. Due to this fact, alot of people didn't necessarily think that Sexton's writings should be considered poetry. They termed her literature as "confessional poetry" (GaleNet). I think another way to reflect on this poem is with knowledge that Sexton commited suicide. She obviously was a very mentally ill person who felt that the pressures of life were too much for her to handle. When looking at the overall theme of this poem, longing for the days of childhood, we can see how this would relate to Sexton's life. She was reflecting on the past and how she wishes she could go back to those innocent days. The days when she didn't have all the cares and suffering that she endured now. Lines 37-46 say "Oh thumb/ I want a drink,/ it is dark,/ where are the big people,/ when will I get there,/ taking giant steps/ all day,/each day/ and thinking nothing of it?" This can kind of give us a little insight into the mind of Sexton. We see the fear that she has of taking these giant steps each day and getting closer to the end and death. She is longing to go back in time and be back in the days of carefree childhood, however, she realizes that she is getting closer to the end, and further away from her past.



Way 10: Historical and Cultural Contexts
Taking a look at the history of mental illness in the United States can help us to understand a little bit about what Sexton is writing in her poem, "The Fury of Overshoes." Mental illness in 1974, when this poem was written, was treated much differently than it is today. Looking at the book, __Psychiatry in Society,__ we learn a little bit about how menally ill patients were treated in history. We also learn about the extreme number of patients that were kept in hospitals as opposed to the amount of patients in hospitals today. "In the mid-1950's, the census of public hospitals in the USA peaked at 560,000 inpatients. Linear projections had led to expectations that bed occupancy would exceed 700,000 by 1970. Instead, the bed census for stated and county mental hospital recorded for 1970 had fallen by half; the most recent data (for 1998) are about 63,000" (Sartorious, 5). As we can see, the amount of mental health patients that are staying in hospitals is slowly going down from what it had been in the 50's and the 70's. In the past, the routine for mentally ill patients was to just keep them in a hospital and hope they get better. "What psychiatrists mistook for the malignant course of schizophrenia itself resulted from the superimposition of instituionalism on the psychopathology of the disease. Locked doors, loss of personal control, regimentation, and unoccupied days of hopeless despair promoted regression; regimentation made robots of the patients" (Sartorious, 5). Psychiatrists thought that the proper way to take care of a mentally ill patient was to lock them in a room and expect them to get better, but it usually did just the opposite; it made them robots and accelerated the illness of the patient. I believe that knowing a little bit about the history of mentally ill patients can help to illuminate Sexton's poem because of her frequent stays in mental hospitals. Sexton suffered from mental illness, as I discussed previously, and many of her poems were written during her times in the mental institution. I believe that learning how the patients were treated can help us to look at this poem and see some of the darkness and loneliness that Sexton was feeling during her hospital visits. "Remember, big fish,/ when you couldn't swim/ and simply slipped under/ like a stone frog?/ The world wasn't/ yours" (lines 15-20). These lines can helps us feel some of the helplessness Sexton may have been feeling and relating those feelings to just simply "slipping under" like a child would in a world where they feel they don't belong.



Way 11: Theoretical Application
A psychoanalytical approach to this poem might see the narrator as expressing repressed memories that are now coming to the surface of her conscious memory. This poem gives a feeling of mixed emotions; at some point you feel as though the narrator is "longing" for the days of childhood, and at others you get the feeling that she is mocking her childhood. For example, in lines 11-14, it states, "and the tears/ running down like mud/ because you fell off your/ tricycle?" These lines almost give the feeling of the narrator mocking a child who is crying so heavily simply because they fell of their tricycle. Then, in lines 32-36, it states, "Oh overshoes,/ don't you/ remember me,/ pushing you up and down/ in the winter snow?" These lines seem to indicate the narrator as longing for her childhood days and reminiscing on her past. This could be analyzed by looking at the narrator's childhood as an indication of her current state of mind, or that her current state of mind might be an indicator of how she now looks back at her childhood. I believe that a psychoanalytical approach could also look at the way the text is in written in regards to the frequent line breaks and possibly tie that in as an indicator of the psychosis of the narrator's mind.



Way 12: Another Theoretical Application
A feminist approach to this poem might look at the fact that the author of this poem is female and find indications of oppression throughout the piece. This poem could be seen as the narrator feeling as though they don't fit in with the rest of the world, for instance, in lines 19-22, "The world wasn't/ yours./ It belonged to/ the big people." This could be seen from a women's point of view as trying to fit in in a patriarchal society where the world seems to belong to men, the "big people." Then, in lines 23-27, it states, "Under your bed/ sat the wolf/ and he made a shadow/ when cars passed by/ at night." The author uses gender specific language here when using the word "he." This could be seen as the narrator's view of a male as being a source of fear and pain because she is relating him to a wolf. Right after speaking of the wolf, in lines 28-31, it states, "They made you give up/ your nightlight/ and your teddy/ and your thumb." Who are "they?" The big people? From a feminist view this could be seen as a woman having to give up her rights and things she loves to the more powerful people in society.


Wow! Analyzing this poem in thirteen different ways has really helped to illuminate so many aspects of such a seemingly short poem. There are so many different ways of looking at this poem and each way helped bring a different interpretation and understanding of the piece. My overall interpretation of this poem is that the narrator is struggling with her current state of mind and is reflecting on days past. It seems at times that the narrator is mocking childhood as petty and simple, but is also longing for that same simplicity. In the beginning of the poem when the narrator sees all those children "sit[ting] in a row/ outside the kindergarten" (lines 1-2), it paints the picture of excitement and freedom that you feel when you think of young children. The narrator focuses on the children's overshoes as a memory of her own overshoes. I believe that the significance of the title being "The Fury of Overshoes," is to show the complete dismay that the narrator is feeling that she went through her childhood begging to grow up and be one of the "big people" and then now that she looks back, she realizes that she let it all go by so fast and didn't even think anything of it. Thinking of overshoes just brings back memories of childhood that are upsetting because there is no way to go back. She feels stuck in the present and hates that she can't go back. Works Cited

Sexton, Anne. "The Fury of Overshoes." __The Death Notebooks.__ Boston, Houghton Mifflin.1974.

"Mud." __Dictionary.com.__ 2009. 20 March 2009 []

"Tear." __Dictionary.com.__ 2009. 20 March 2009 []

"Fish." __Dictionary.com.__ 2009. 20 March 2009 []

"Swim." __Dictionary.com.__ 2009. 20 March 2009 []

"Stone."__Dictionary.com__. 2009. 20 March 2009 []

"Frog." __Dictionary.com.__ 2009. 20 March 2009 []

"Wolf." __Dictionary.com.__ 2009. 20 March 2009 []

"Shadow." __Dictionary.com.__ 2009. 20 March 2009 []

"Night." __Dictionary.com.__ 2009. 20 March 2009 []

"Anne ( Harvey) Sexton." __Contemporary Authors.__ 2003 __Contemporary Authors Online.__ Galenet. UW Colleges Online Library. 29 April 2009 [] Sartorious, Norman. __Psychiatry in Society.__ New York: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. (UK), 2002. 30 April 2009 http://www.netlibrary.com.ezproxy.uwc.edu/Reader/

