May Sarton Revisited by Elizabeth Evans is a condensed overview of Sarton’s life and works, which has fulfilled its function of an introduction to Sarton。 In chapter 2 of May Sarton Revisited, Evans deeply analyzes Sarton’s five journals (Journal of a Solitude, The House by the Sea, Recovering, At Seventy and After the Stroke) and three memoirs (A World of Light, I Knew a Phoenix and Plant Dreaming Deep), which really touches on the themes in the journals, such as daily routines, music and nature。 And Evans also has a clear discussion about Sarton’s writing of women’s roles and relations。 “The journals may well have provided therapeutic value to Sarton; they have also spoken the unspoken for women, who could not express anger, deal with regret, welcome the love of women, and risk passion in middle or in old age。”(Evans, 1989: 27)

Besides, poetry is another topic of Sarton studied by other researchers。 A House of Gathering: Poets on May Sarton’s Poetry by Marilyn Kallet studies specifically on Sarton’s poetry。 In A House of Gathering: Poets on May Sarton’s Poetry, the author pides the essays on Sarton’s poetry into three sections---dealing with Sarton’s craft, illustrating some poetries by Sarton such as “Old Lovers at the Ballet”, and the last but strongest section is about “Approaching Silence”。 In this work, Kallet provides readers with a better understanding of the characteristics in Sarton’s poetic voice, the tenets of her poetics, and the form, function, and effect of her inpidual poems。

Mark K。 Fulk studies about Sarton’s life and works such as poetry, novels and journals in a detailed way in order to have a better understanding about Sarton in Understanding May Sarton。 In the view of Fulk, “Sarton built her art upon a constant growing and maturing, emphasizing care for the soul through developing a deep sense of the sacramental power of everyday tasks, creating spaces of silence and solitude, and placing the nurture of self and others at the top of her list of priorities。” (Fulk, 1968: 1-2) One understanding of Fulk to Sarton is her theme of solitude, because Fulk believes that “The journal form represents just this kind of solitary self contem-plating inpidual days。 The publication of journals, or even, as in Sarton’s case, the writing of journals for publication, illustrates what is implicit in true solitude: the withdrawal of the self to find, contemplate, and renew that self in order to give more fully to others。” (Fulk, 1968: 13)

Susan Swartzlander, together with Marilyn Munford once edited That Great Sanity: Critical Essays on May Sarton, which studies deeply in Sarton’s works and conclude a systematic assessment of Sarton’s achievements。 The authors create an appropriate context for Sarton’s creative works through a variety of critical perspectives。 This work offers some significant possibilities for rethinking Sarton’s works in a different way。文献综述

Apart from the theme of feminism, poetry and solitude, aging is an indelible and predominant theme in Sarton’s works。 Sylvia B。 Henneberg once discussed in “Of Creative Crones and Poetry: Developing Age Studies Through Literature” that “Sarton is determined to understand and, to the extent that it is possible, actively construct rather than succumb to her aging。 Intent on celebrating the rewards of aging but just as honest about its limitations, Sarton devotes her writing to the pursuit of truths surrounding senescence。” (berg, 2006: 108) Nevertheless, the studies on aging are not so abundant。 According to Henneberg, “Reading through the slowly growing body of what is coming to be known as “age studies,” the critical examination and theorization of age as a marker of identity, one repeatedly encounters a very well-founded complaint: no one wants to talk about aging。”(Henneberg, 2006: 106) Nevertheless, aging is really an important theme in literary gerontology, which has its special practical significance。 In “Aging Gracefully in the 21st Century”, Shiang-Huey C。 Shieh states that “nowadays about one third of a person's life is spent in post-retirement。 Instead of viewing aging as a problem, we need to reexamine it so that we may live through the stretched-out later stages of lives in a meaningful and enjoyable manner。”(Shieh, 2009: 1) And the society accordingly arise their attention to the aging issue。 Marlene Springer shows an example in “As We Shall Be: May Sarton and Aging”: “A university recently spent $77,000 to do a survey designed to assess the needs of the elderly in its state。”(Springer, 1980: 46)