The Starry Night

That does not keep me from having a terrible need of -- shall I say the word -- religion. Then
I go out at night to paint the stars.

--Vincent Van Gogh in a letter to his brother
By: Anne Sexton

The town does not exist
except where one black-haired tree slips
up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.
The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die.

It moves. They are all alive.
Even the moon bulges in its orange irons
to push children, like a god, from its eye.
The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die:

into that rushing beast of the night,
sucked up by that great dragon, to split
from my life with no flag,
no belly,
no cry.




In 1889, Vincent Van Gogh painted,
“The Starry Night”, while in an asylum. The Starry night portrays a ray-less
scenery with eleven illuminating stars in the night sky. Van Gogh balanced his
painting with a combination of angry motions and serenity. While being in an
asylum, his feelings must have been conflicted. Confused with his own emotions,
he still imagined peacefulness and calmness in his mind.
Anne Sexton ingrains powerful
themes such as, life and death in her poem. It seems that she is drawn to Van
Gogh’s powerful sky, It is something that she consistently stresses in the
poem. “The night boils with eleven stars. Oh starry starry night! This is how I
want to die”. Here, The writer gives away the main image of the poem. Without
even seeing the actual painting, you can visualize the vibrant sky that Van
Gogh had painted. “It moves. They are all alive. Even the moon bulges its
orange irons to push children, like an god, from its eye”. Here, the writer
shows how she sees both the stars and the moons. She believes that the moon and
the stars in the painting are alive.
I noticed that the writer repeats
the line, “Oh starry night! This is how I want to die”. I believe that Anne
Sexton was trying to express her feelings toward death. The painting exposes a
beautiful scenery, and I think that Anne Sexton thought that taking place in
the painting and peacefully dieing there would bring her happiness. I am
convinced that Van Gogh felt the same exact way. While being in an asylum, he
probably wanted to be free. Painting was a way he could express his emotions.
While being trapped in a small room, he painted. He imagined a scene where
there were glowing stars in a deep blue sky. A bulging, yellow moon at the
corner of the sky, and a peaceful town at bottom. I think that Van Gogh dreamed
about being able to live like that. Vincent
Van Gogh and Anne Sexton both expressed their emotions through some sort of
art. Van Gogh used his paintings, and   Anne Sexton used her poetry. There are sure a lot of
ways to interpret this poem. But, what was Anne Sexton trying to convey in
her  poem? Is she trying to show that she wants to die? Or, is she trying to reveal her
feelings towards, "The Starry Night" to readers, and show how
beautiful the themes of painting are. 
This poem, and the painting by Van Gogh or both very similar, even
though one is literature   
and the other is a painting. Any work of art can be interpreted in many
ways.