Anne Sexton, a biography

Anne Sexton was an American poet born to a prominent Massachusetts family on November 9, 1928. Considered by many to be the greatest of the confessional poets, she battled depression all her life. The only daughter of an alcoholic father and apathetic mother, Anne showed signs of mental illness in elementary school; however her parents refused to seek psychiatric evaluation. The only source of love and companionship she received during her unhappy childhood was from her great-aunt, Anna Ladd Dingly.

Anne began writing poetry as an adolescent, but quit when her mother accused her of plagiarism. She didn’t begin writing again until after the birth of her second child.

Sexton’s poetry sprang from personal experiences and memories…in the process she dealt with deeply emotional and psychological matters. She wrote of repeated nervous breakdowns, “Noon Walk on the Asylum Lawn” describes her stay in a mental hospital. Exploring childhood memories was the central theme behind “The Kite.” She also wrote often of her daughters, Linda and Joy, as can be seen in “Mother and Daughter.” Many of her poems were actually conversations with friend, Sylvia Plath. These poetic conversations dealt with her feelings on death and attempted suicides: “Wanting to Die” and “Starry Night.” Anne Sexton was also a very passionate woman whose desire for love can be felt in “The Kiss” and “When Man Enters Woman.”

Anne Sexton’s poetic career spans a short eighteen years. Her first book, To Bedlam and Part Way Back (published in 1960), was followed by nine others. In 1965, upon the publication of her Selected Poems in England, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her third collection, Live or Die (published in 1966), won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Sexton was an expert on the human condition. She possessed a profound understanding of our suffering, but knew little of her own…she succumbed to her depression on 4 October 1974 and committed suicide.

Upon the death of her friend, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton wrote a poem entitled “Sylvia’s Death.” In this ode she referred to Plath as a “thief” taking the death that belonged to her.