The Fury of Overshoes -- Analysis

Being a kid is the best stage of life they say. Kids have no worries to think of and all a kid is concerned of is fun and play.

When I first read the poem "The Fury of Overshoes" by Anne Sexton, what came to my mind was an adult who was reminiscing her childhood. I thought she missed those things that she did before that she could never do when she became an adult. But when I read the poem again and this time more intently, I noticed that the childhood memories mentioned were not happy ones. She was mostly talking of her fury and sad memories of her past.

***
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.
***

These lines from the poem highlights how LIMITED a child can do. I can imagine an adult who yells at the child saying, "Yo'ure just a kid! You can't do better until you grow up and be mature!"

***
Oh overshoes,
don't you
remember me,
pushing you up and down
in the winter snow?
***

The snow mentioned here was like the fears of the child. The overshoes was most probably the shield against the coldness of the snow, the fears.


***
Oh thumb,
I want a drink,
it is dark,
***

It just shows how the child hungers for happiness. Just like my own experience, when I craved for my thumb, but my parents would scold me if I disobey them.


***
where are the big people,
when will I get there,
taking giant steps
all day,
each day
and thinking
nothing of it?
***

In these last few lines, the person here sought for the big people. This means that she wanted to be an adult right away thinking that she could be free and escape the fury of her childhood. But she was really wrong I think. As she rushed for adulthood, she forgot her main purpose and she realized, the solution to her problem wasn't there at all.

For me, the poem gave me a realization that adulthood and childhood are just the same. It has its equal share of fury and happiness. A person should just enjoy each day that God has given while she's young and not rush on being mature because the fury and happiness there is just the same.