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Answers by Edith Sitwell

Edith Sitwell's poem "Answers" explores how people keep both big and small answers to troubling questions private or provide small answers to satisfy others. While the poet tries to shield herself with small answers and distractions from beauty in life, large questions persist in demanding honest responses. In the end, the poet finds she can make her own conclusions and no longer feels intruded upon by outside questions and demands. The poem examines how we all face intrusive questions from society but must find inner strength and truth.

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174 views2 pages

Answers by Edith Sitwell

Edith Sitwell's poem "Answers" explores how people keep both big and small answers to troubling questions private or provide small answers to satisfy others. While the poet tries to shield herself with small answers and distractions from beauty in life, large questions persist in demanding honest responses. In the end, the poet finds she can make her own conclusions and no longer feels intruded upon by outside questions and demands. The poem examines how we all face intrusive questions from society but must find inner strength and truth.

Uploaded by

GOLDEN FIZZIK GYM
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Answers

Edith Sitwell
Edith Sitwell’s poem ‘Answers’ takes us towards an inner journey, proceeding from the
questions a person is asked. The poem begins a personal discourse, but as it proceeds, the
answers whether big or small, become our universal bulwark of life perturbed by persistent
questions.

Edith Sitwell begins the poem by telling the reader how we all keep big answers to embarrassing,
troubling, irritating, unavoidable and disturbing questions to ourselves; most of the time, we keep
small answers ready for such questions. Big questions always bruise our heart and mind and so
the poet is trying to manage to keep herself sane and sound and peaceful by using these small
answers as bulwark to protect her sanity and peace of mind.

While the small answers seemingly guard her troubled soul, she tries to keep away the huge
generalizations and abstractions from all fronts in the dark background of her mind; she does this
by observing the small beauties of life, lovely explorations of experiences that give momentary
yet lasting happiness and joy. She learns to see stars in the darkness of the night of her life and
these twinkling little stars of happiness are a great solace to her.

Even though the poet tries her best to guard herself with her own solutions and small answers to
keep others satisfied, the questions themselves hurt her, attack her at unguarded moments; they
are shockingly audacious and try to move into her life. These questions want to be answered
honestly and demand to be believed.

Edith Sitwell does not want to give up her fight against the big answers that are demanded; she
vehemently tries to protect herself with all small answers to protect her spirit; the big honest
answers are choking her and demand to be let out in the open, and try relentlessly to overthrow
the small answers – her own small solutions to keep the big questions raising their demonic
heads.

The poet ends her poem with a beautiful and powerful line : “And all the great conclusions
coming near”. The fear is gone now and the conclusions she makes on her decisions are final and
no one can intrude into her soul and this gives her the ultimate solution.

The poem begins on a personal note, but as the poem proceeds, we understand that it is not the
predicament of Edith Sitwell, but everyone of us. We are always battered by unwanted and
intrusive questions; we have big answers ready within but do not have courage to speak them
out. Instead, we buckle under societal pressure and keep readymade short answers to satisfy the
intrusive minds.

We live in an interdependent society; true. But we also have an independent spirit and an
independent life. It is our life, our decision to live the way we want to and others do not have a
right to intrude into our privacy to the extent of disrupting the independent spirit. Answers are
solutions to our own problems in such an environment; keep ourselves sane and sound and retain
our individualism while living in a society that is known for asking big intrusive questions. The
conclusion or solution to our predicament lies within ourselves and Edith Sitwell brings this out
beautifully.

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