Explication of Anne Sexton's "Her Kind"

Anne Sexton's "Her Kind" tells the story of a woman progressing through 3 different situations of alienation, each provoking a different emotion (maybe 3 different women?). The poem seems to be about a 'witch' who then moves into a cave and eventually is so outcast/the people are so scared of they burn her/send her to the gallows, but whether it was meant literally or metaphorically may be another matter-it could be just about a woman who is first an outcast/the subject of gossip in society, then an alienated-from-society woman living in a cave in the woods, and finally the subject of an execution.
In the first stanza she talks of being a 'witch' possessed by bravery and dreaming 'evil' things, but it makes me wonder if this isn't some kind of irony-
When talking about being some 'kind' of thing, who decides what 'her kind' is like but the crowd? It feels like she's relaying an outside image of 'her kind' more then actually casting herself in guilty admission in this stanza, though that's possible as well.
In the second stanza she seems to be talking of removing herself to a sanctuary of a 'cave', and whether this is literal or metaphorical it definately takes on the connotation of her making someplace removed from society her home, though once again this is one of those things that could also be read as her being kicked out of society and then still gossiped about with fantastical tales about feeding worms and elves.
The last stanza is the execution scene--she is brought through the streets still waving her bare arms at the villagers and once again bringing up bravery (or at least the lack of fear), this time in matters of dying, seems to still express a you-can't-touch-me/proud sort of emotion.
Either that or she too believes she's guilty and deserves death...
This is one of those poems that seems to be able to be read either way...
The speaker is a woman set to be on the outside of the situation, an onlooker who sympathizes with/has been through the same stuff as the woman actually going through the trial and tribulation, or perhaps the woman herself speaking in 3rd point of view, except she had to phrase it this way since its impossible to speak through the grave with 1st person pov. I'm not sure who the speaker is talking to--maybe herself; it seems like a private admission.
Once again, the attitude is either between pride of being 'her kind' to indignation at having to be called 'her kind' with all the outside stipulations of gossipers attached to it OR guilt at having been 'her kind' to understanding why she had to die, though i'd like to vote on the former/my first reading through's interpretation due to phrases such as how she was 'braver at night' and she didn't seem to mind to be 'possessed' or 'dreaming of evil' (what if this is just a statement of it could've been she was dreaming of escaping old school women limitations rather then actually causing evil?) and how she talks of not doing evil things in the second stanza and her usage of the word "misunderstood" rather than "evil" when showing the actual close-up examples of what made others think her a 'witch'.
A somber tone of voice seems appropriate for reading through all of this, maybe a little bolder at the beginning of the stanzas "I have gone out"; "I have found"; "I have ridden"and then somber at the end.

Regarding the structure of the poem, I think the poet knew that having all similarly lengthed stanzas that used repetition at the ending was effective at giving an ultimate sense of connection throughout the poem. The poem seems to develop chronologically, if its given its about one woman instead of three. It moves from ironic self-ridicule/mocking of others ridicule to a "Live proud of what you are, die proud of what you are" attitude.

There are 21 sentences in the poem (3 sets of 7), there are some simple sentences, some complicated. Some of the verbs are placed in front of the nouns ('dreaming evil') because evil dreaming makes it seem like the dreaming is evil instead of she is dreaming of evil things/evil things up.
There are commas, semi-colons and periods in the poem, the punctuation does not always coincide with the end of the poetic line, though it does sometimes. The punctuation in the middle of the line seems to be in order to make the poem flow more naturally. The title is repeated throughout the poem and is made for people to really re-think what is meant when she says "Her Kind"/what her intention is with the poem.
The language seems simple but descriptive. The first stanza leaves a creepy feeling, her 'haunting the black air' and going amongst the houses at night, someone with 12 fingers whose not quite a woman...the 2nd stanza leaves a comfortable feeling though, homey, with her 'warm caves in the woods' with all the trinkets she fills it with, feeding the 'worms/elves' reminds one of how someone would feed a family, 'whining, rearraging the disalligned" resembling housework. Like she wants to make a house, but her own way. The third stanza's mood is one somewhere near indignation, like its an injustice for her to die; this is especially shown through the depiction of her riding through the streets and burning/her ribs cracking. The end of the stanza also holds another mood though-one the audience is seeming to be given to respect, that she wouldn't let them have the satisfaction of shaming her with thier mislabeling of her person/character/judgemental attitudes towards her life, even in death.
The allusion in this poem would be to witch trials that have taken place over the century against odd or adultrous women who first were outcast and later burnt by fear-filled villagers unwilling to attempt to begin to understand a different point of view/accept a different lifestyle.
Using this allusion and all the figurative language that goes with it intensifies the effect of the poem deeply, putting set concrete events to frame a situation that may be very different then the exact one put down.
Its not a rhyming poem, the effect is satisfying, the tonal effect of the rhythym here is that it seems to go from quiet/less effective to powerful matter-of-fact-speaking.
The poem creates a 'no-shame' mood on the reader, the technical elements helped the poet create this effect by allowing her to bring three subsequent situations of alienation/typecasting by others together to show the damage it can bring--and that it doesn't work, because even in death the others fail to kill her spirit (and, as a warning to future witch hunters-why do something pointless when they won't let you the satisfaction?)