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Discussion
Questions
1. The deliberate decision to live
alone was a brave one for a woman of Sarton's generation.
"I am here alone for the first time in weeks, to take
up my 'real' life again at last. That is what is strange-that
friends, even passionate love, are not my real life
unless there is time alone in which to explore and
to discover what is happening or what has happened.
Without the interruptions, nourishing and maddening,
this life would become arid. Yet I taste it fully
only when I am alone here and 'the house and I resume
old conversations' '' (Journal of a Solitude,
p. 11). Discuss the role solitude plays in Sarton's
journals. What price does she pay for living alone?
How does she deal with her loneliness? What does she
see as the rewards of the solitude she has chosen?
2. "There is no doubt that solitude is a challenge
and to maintain balance within it a precarious business.
But I must not forget that, for me, being with people
or even with one beloved person for any length of
time without solitude is even worse. I lose my center.
I feel dispersed, scattered, in pieces. I must have
time alone in which to mull over any encounter and
to extract its juice, its essence, to understand what
has really happened to me as a consequence of it"
(Journal of a Solitude, p. 195). It is ironic
that Sarton's "solitary" life is in fact filled with
visitors and commitments that take time away from
her art. What is your reaction to the many complaints
she makes about these interruptions?
3. "Plant Dreaming Deep has brought me many
friends of the work. . . . But I have begun to realize
that, without my own intention, that book gives a
false view. The anguish of my life here-its rages-is
hardly mentioned. Now I hope to break through into
the rough rocky depths, to the matrix itself. There
is violence there and anger never resolved" (Journal
of a Solitude, p. 13). Contrast the picture of
the emotional life revealed in these two journals.
To what extent does Journal of a Solitude achieve
her stated goal?
4. "Now I am reading over the journal and revising
I see that I have made a good journey out of depression
and rage, and it is time soon to make an end of this
means of handling those demons. It has served its
purpose" (Recovering, p. 239). "I feel happy
to be keeping a journal again. I have missed it, missed
'naming things' as they appear, missed the half hour
when I push all duties aside and savor the experience
of being alive in this beautiful place" (At Seventy,
p. 17). How do you think keeping a journal helped
Sarton to live with the inevitable results of the
choices she made?
5. Sarton often attributes her depression to the fact
that the literary critical establishment for so long
either ignored or disparaged her work. All her books
have remained in print, however, and her journals
especially touched the lives of many thousands of
readers. How would you assess her strengths and weaknesses
as a writer?
6. What do you think is the essential appeal of Sarton's
journals? How does she achieve their effects? In Encore,
she tells her readers, "I suddenly realized what it
is about my journals that may be valuable. I never
tell people what to do. I cannot imagine making a
step-by-step analysis of how to live in solitude.
I describe a way of life" (p. 214). Is she right in
this perception?
7. "What kept me going was, I think, that writing
for me is a way of understanding what is happening
to me, of thinking hard things out. I have never written
a book that was not born out of a question I needed
to answer for myself. Perhaps it is the need to remake
order out of chaos over and over again. For art is
order, but it is made out of the chaos of life" (At
Seventy, p. 105). Do you agree with Sarton's definition
of art? What order is she attempting to create in
her own writing?
8. Unlike many journals, Sarton's are clearly written
to be read by the public. What are some differences
between public and private journals? Has Sarton's
unusual honesty for a woman of her generation to some
extent overcome the public/private distinction?
9. Looking at Sarton's work, what is the difference
between a journal and a memoir?
10. In The House by the Sea, Sarton writes,
"If there is an art to the keeping of a journal intended
for publication yet at the same time a very personal
record, it may be in what E[lizabeth] Bowen said:
'One must regard oneself impersonally as an instrument'
" (p. 5). What do you think of Bowen's statement?
To what degree does Sarton achieve objectivity or
impersonality in her journals?
11. Sarton attends to the smallest pleasures of life,
whether setting a beautiful table or arranging the
flowers she grows in her garden. What effect does
the recording of these details have on the reader?
12. Discuss how the fact that Sarton was a poet influences
the style of her journal and memoir writing. For instance,
how does she use metaphors and images to convey her
daily physical, intellectual, and emotional experience?
13. What does Sarton mean by saying, "We are all myth-makers
about ourselves" (Plant Dreaming Deep, p. 183)?
How would you define a myth? What myths does Sarton
create? How do you respond to them?
14. "I read [C. M. Bowra's essay on Sappho] forty-six
years ago, and it had the good effect of helping me
come to terms with the fact that women alone inspired
me to write poems. It was troubling, but the seizure,
when it came, was so commanding I could not doubt
its value. I could not believe I was wrong or aberrant.
It gave me courage to be myself and not to allow the
ethos of the time to blur my vision." (At Seventy,
p. 91). In Journal of a Solitude, Sarton refers to
her lovers only by initials. Does this deception work?
Does knowing that Sarton is a lesbian affect our understanding
of her story?
15. Sarton said that women have always been the necessary
muse for her poetry. What does the word "muse" mean
to you? What do you think Sarton is saying about her
muse?
16. The desire for romantic love plays a large part
in Sarton's emotional landscape. "I have longed for
one person with whom everything could be shared, but
I am slowly making my peace with the knowledge that
this will never happen" (Journal of a Solitude,
p. 157). How realistic is this wish? What impression
do you get of Sarton's relationships with her friends
and lovers?
17. "Having an English mother and a Belgian father,
I have been for forty years a builder of bridges-a
builder of bridges between one kind of life and another,
between Europe and America for example" (Endgame,
p. 227). How has Sarton's European background influenced
her? Compare the portraits of her family and her early
life in I Knew a Phoenix and A World of
Light with those she writes in her later journals.
How does her view of her parents change as she gets
older?
18. What is the function of gardening in Sarton's
life? How does she balance her days between the demands
of her writing and the demands of the physical world
she is constantly creating and re-creating around
her? In the later journals, how does the gradual decay
of the garden function as a metaphor?
19. Animals are essential to Sarton's well-being.
What is the particular love, devotion, and dependence
that Tamas, Bramble, Pierrot, and the birds in the
garden offer her?
20. What role does music play in Sarton's life? During
what moods was it most important? Why was she at times
unable to listen to the music she loved so much?
21. Late in her life, Sarton was, as one might expect,
absorbed by death, dying, and illness. Her journals
detail her daily battle with pain and increasing debility.
What is your response to her candor in discussing
these topics?
Praise
for May Sarton's Work
"May Sarton is at once a foremother of all us women
now writing and a peer because she is still producing
and evolving. She is still teaching us how to think
about the events of our lives, and how to sing about
them, too. It has been one of her gifts never to pretend
that a woman's life is easier or simpler than it is,
but to record its austerity and richness."—Marge
Piercy
"Prolific poet and novelist, author of six nonfiction
books and heaped with academic honors, Sarton has
fashioned her journals, 'sonatas' as she calls them,
into a distinctive literary form: relaxed yet shapely,
a silky weave of reflection, sensuous observation
and record of her daily round, with the reader made
companion to her inmost thoughts. . . . Rich in warmth,
perceptiveness, and reassurance."—Publishers
Weekly
Journals
by May Sarton
I Knew a Phoenix
Plant Dreaming Deep
Journal of a Solitude
A World of Light
The House by the Sea
Recovering
At Seventy
After the Stroke
Endgame
Encore
At 82
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