Abstract

At Seventy, belongs to the series of May Sarton’s journals and memoirs, raging the year from May 1982 to May 1983, recording her life at the age of seventy. Poetry is an important subject in At Seventy, recording her understandings of nature, friendship and ageing. When living alone, Sarton reads and writes poetry; when communicating with others, poetry is an indispensable topic.

This thesis is based on the literary analysis of At Seventy, especially to the poetry Sarton reads, writes and talks about. This paper aims to discuss the relationship between poetry and Sarton’s old life. Besides, the roles that poetry plays in forming Sarton’s new understandings of nature, friendship and ageing are explored.

Here are the findings: poetry plays an essential role in Sarton’s old life and she writes poems on nature, friendship and so on. Besides, her understanding of ageing at seventy is very different from that at sixty, she changes her fear and desperation of ageing and death into positive attitudes towards old life and enjoyment.

Keywords: May Sarton; At Seventy; poetry ; ageing

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1.Introduction-1

1.1 Brief introduction about May Sarton and At Seventy-1

1.2 Literature review-1

1.2.1 current study about Sarton home and abroad-1

1.2.2 Sarton’s works of poetry-3

2. General Analysis of Poetry in At Seventy-5

2.1-Definition of poetry.......-5

2.2- Frequency of occurrence of poetry-5

2.3-Categories of poetry......-5

2.4-Functions of poetry.......-5

3.Sarton’s Understanding of Nature in terms of Poetry-7

4. Sarton’s Deep Understanding of Friendship in terms of Poetry-9

4.1 The happy time with friends-9

4.2 Poems as presents-9

5.Sarton’s New Understanding of Aging in terms of Poetry-11

5.1 Sarton’s old understanding of aging in Journal of a Solitude-11

5.2 Sarton’s new understanding of aging in At Seventy-13

5.3 Reasons for Sarton’s new understandings-14

5.3.1 Poetry-reading tour-14

5.3.2 Reading poetry-15

5.3.3 Writing poetry-16

6.Conclusion-17

6.1 A Summary of This Essay-17

6.2 The Value of the Research-17

References-18