Anne Sexton
The Life and Influence of Anne Sexton What is Confession? By definition confession is the ritual of discourse in which the speaking subject is also the subject of the statement. Anne Sexton is said by some to be the greatest confessional poet of all time. Her well-documented life helps us to analyze her work. Anne Sexton used personal life experiences and symbols in her writing to connect to the reader through a confessional style. Anne Sexton was born on November 9, 1928 in Newton, Massachusetts. As a child, Anne was abused and possibly sexual harassed. She was very depressed and had many suicide attempts throughout her life. She attended Garland Junior college for one year. At the age of nineteen she married Alfred Muller Sexton II, even though she was already engaged to somebody else. The Sexton's had their first child in 1953. This led to Sexton's first mental breakdown, which forced her to be hospitalized. She was diagnosed with postpartum depression. After being released Anne began to write poetry as a therapeutic exercise. In 1955 she had her second child. This also led to another mental breakdown and again she was hospitalized. She was again released and on her birthday in 1955 Anne Sexton attempted sui
Some of Anne's readers even claimed that Anne spoke to them through her writings because the reader could relate so much. Confessionalism is said to be the biggest part of Anne Sexton's poetry. This is believed because the woman who read her poetry could relate to her somehow. " This is a powerful quote because it explains the influence that confessional poetry, especially by Anne Sexton, can put on people. The works of confessional poets was not highly respected because the things talked about in their poetry was considered inappropriate in the 50's and 60's. Her work was influenced by her psychological problems and used mythical imagery to enhance the feeling her reader's got when they read her work. She was immediately committed to therapy and her doctor strongly recommended that she continue writing poetry as a way to reduce the amount of stress in her life. Anne Sexton was great because she used her psychological problems and shame to open up to the reader. This is why Anne Sexton's poetry strongly impacted all of those who read it. She also seemed to be the character in many of her poems because she described a typical educated New England woman and she described places or people she had known or seen in her life in many of her works. Rosenthal (analyst of Anne's work) says, "These poems seemed to me one combination of the romantic and modem tendency to place the literal self more and more at the center of the poem in such a way as to make her psychological vulnerability and shame an embodiment of her civilization. In her later works especially before her suicide she started to explore questions of religion and faith. They believed this because Sexton wrote her poems in the first person perspective, using "I". Many people began to speak their mind and express their thoughts more clearly.
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