"Suicidal Anne"
Fun Facts!
* Anne Sexton was known as the most “confessional” poets of her time.
*Anne Sexton was also one of the most criticized beacuse she used graphic images! *She wrote more than a dozen volumes about incest, adultery, and madness to reveal the depths of her deeply troubled life!
* Despite all the drama Anne went on to win many awards and go down as one of the best poets of all time!
* Pulitzer Prize- Winning poet!
“As it has been said:
Love and a cough
cannot be concealed.
Even a small cough.
Even a small love.”
― Anne Sexton
Love and a cough
cannot be concealed.
Even a small cough.
Even a small love.”
― Anne Sexton
“All I wanted was a little piece of life, to be married, to have children.... I was trying my damnedest to lead a conventional life, for that was how I was brought up, and it was what my husband wanted of me. But one can't build little white picket fences to keep the nightmares out.”
― Anne Sexton
Sexton's poetry was characterized by:
incisive metaphors,
unexpected rhythms
precise wording that covered a spectrum of feelings
Her poetry challenged the myths and superficial values subscribed to by the social status quo, while expressing her fears, anger, and struggle against mental illness!
| Anne Sexton photographed by Elsa Dorfman
"Courage"
It is in the small things we see it.
The child's first step, as awesome as an earthquake. The first time you rode a bike, wallowing up the sidewalk. The first spanking when your heart went on a journey all alone. When they called you crybaby or poor or fatty or crazy and made you into an alien, you drank their acid and concealed it.
Later,
if you faced the death of bombs and bullets you did not do it with a banner, you did it with only a hat to cover your heart. You did not fondle the weakness inside you though it was there. Your courage was a small coal that you kept swallowing. If your buddy saved you and died himself in so doing, then his courage was not courage, it was love; love as simple as shaving soap.
Later,
if you have endured a great despair, then you did it alone, getting a transfusion from the fire, picking the scabs off your heart, then wringing it out like a sock. Next, my kinsman, you powdered your sorrow, you gave it a back rub and then you covered it with a blanket and after it had slept a while it woke to the wings of the roses and was transformed.
Later,
when you face old age and its natural conclusion your courage will still be shown in the little ways, each spring will be a sword you'll sharpen, those you love will live in a fever of love, and you'll bargain with the calendar and at the last moment when death opens the back door you'll put on your carpet slippers and stride out. ~ Anne Sexton ~
(The Awful Rowing Toward God)
| |
| Born | November 9, 1928 Newton, Massachusetts, United States |
|---|---|
| Died | October 4, 1974 (aged 45) Weston, Massachusetts, United States |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | American |
| Genres | Confessional poetry |
| Children | Linda Gray Sexton Joyce Ladd Sexton |
Works Cited
"Anne Sexton Courage." Poetry Foundation. | Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, Apr.-May 2001. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/.
Middlebrook, Diane Wood. Anne Sexton: A Biography. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991. Print.
McClatchy, J. D. Anne Sexton: The Artist and Her Critics. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1978. Print.
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