An Analysis Of Essay, Research Paper

In the poem “To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph”, Anne

Sexton alludes to the flight of Icarus and Daedalus and to “To a Friend

Whose Work Has Come to Nothing” to convey a message to a friend. I think

this poem was written to reassure a friend that what she did was the right

thing. Perhaps a father figure of the friend advised her to do something

and she defied him, making herself feel worried that she did the wrong

thing.

William Butler Yeats once wrote a poem titled “To a Friend Whose

Work has Come to Nothing”. It was a poem believed to be written to

reassure a friend that what she ended up doing was a noble thing even

though in reality she failed her original task. The title of Sexton’s poem

is an obvious allusion to Yeats’ poem. Sexton changed “Nothing” to

“Triumph” in her title. Sexton’s friend must have been a fellow poet to be

able to catch the allusion to Yeats’ poem. I believe she wanted her friend

to know that what she did was the right thing. Perhaps she compared her

friend to Yeats’ friend. Sexton wrote “Think of the difference it made!”

referring to Icarus’ flight. She might have wanted her friend to realize a

difference her defying her father made.

The final line of the poem has a comparably different tone than the

first 13 lines. The last line, “See him acclaiming the sun and come

plunging down while his sensible daddy goes straight into town.”, seems

more mocking of Daedalus’ flight. It seems that Sexton feels that

Daedalus’ flight was a wasted chance and was in no way adventurous. She

might also be comparing her friend to Icarus, seeing as he too failed his

initial task but accomplished something greater on a global scale. I

believe Sexton thought that Icarus’ flight was not foolish or a failure,

but adventurous and a great personal success, even though his satisfaction

and personal glory was short-lived. She wrote “Admire his wings”,

“wondrously tunneling”, and “Who cares that he fell back to the sea”,

therefore I think that she doesn’t believe that the fact Icarus plunged to

the sea is important.

Many have used the process of allusion in the past to help convey a

meaning of a poem. A popular example and choice of an allusion topic is

the bible or past works of art and literature. Anne Sexton obviously

chose allusion as her method of conveying her emotional message to her

friend.