Amanda Fernandez "Unknown Girl in the Maturnity Ward" by Anne Sexton

"Unknown Girl In The Maturnity Ward" by Anne Sexton, performed by Amanda Fernandez was exhilarating. When Amanda was performing the poem she made it feel like you were actually there in the ward with the girl. Amanda read the poem like a story and not in a sing song way. She told the story that went with the poem very well. All the imagery in the poem was very vivid. I enjoyed watching her perform. I watched at least 5 other performances and Amanda's was the best. She conveyed the poem better than the other performers, that must have been why she was in the top performances. She had a great physical presence and great voice and articulation also. This poem told a great story

The poem was about a teenage girl who had just given birth to a child. She loved the child and wanted to keep the child, but had no one to keep the child with. The father had left them both and the child was up for adoption. The poem shifts from her being happy for having to being upset with the doctors for scolding her. At the begining of the peom she says the childs lips are like animals and that hunger is not wrong at first, but I think she is talking about herself and the "hunger" and lust that she had for the man she had sex with to produce the child. She knew she had sinned when she had sex and then got pregnant without a father to care for the child. She loves the child, obviously, but can not care for it so she hands the child off to another family so that the child can have a better life. I think the message for this poem was to do the right thing and that mistakes happen, but you can always fix them in some way.