
Anne Sexton (1928 –1974) was an influential American poet who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967. She was known for her highly personal poetry, dealing primarily with her long battle with depression, suicidal tendencies and various intimate details of her private life.
Though she was raised in a comfortable middle-class situation in Massachusetts, she was not happy with her life and she suffered from psychological issues.
A difficult marriage deteriorated her mental health. After the birth of her first daughter, she suffered her first breakdown and her depression worsened after the birth of her second daughter in 1955
Several attempts at suicide led to intermittent institutionalization and it was her therapist who encouraged her to write about her thoughts and feelings.
In the late 1960s, having lost both her parents unexpectedly, her mental issues increased and began to affect her career severely.
Poetry seemed the only route to stability, though at times the friendships she made through her art, which led to sexual affairs, were a little unsettling. Her marriage was torn by discord and physical abuse as her husband saw his formerly dependent wife become a celebrity.
However, she continued to write poems and received several major literary prizes
She used to write openly about subjects such as menstruation, abortion, incest, adultery, and drug addiction at a time when none of them were considered proper topics for poetry, which made her a subject of controversy.
Sexton was able to convince her readers that her poems echoed her life and is regarded as the modern model of the confessional poet owing to the intimate and emotional content of her poetry. However, much of what she wrote was in no way autobiographical, despite the sense of reality it had.
She used her knowledge of the human condition–often painful, but sometimes joyous–to create poems meaningful to the mid-century readers who lived daily with similar fears and worries.
A series of volatile sexual affairs further complicated her life which ended tragically at the age of 45. The previous year she had told her husband she wanted a divorce, and, from that time on, a noticeable decline in her health and stability had occurred (loneliness, alcoholism, and depression).
Divorced and living by herself, Sexton was lonely and seemed to be searching for compassion through love affairs. She continued to be in psychotherapy, from which she evidently gained little solace.
On 4 October 1974, she had lunch with a friend, then she returned home, put on her mother’s old fur coat, removed all her rings, poured herself a glass of vodka, locked herself in her garage, and started the engine of her car, ending her life by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Did not know about her. This is fascinating.
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Thank you for reading and commenting
🌹💖🌹
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“Like” does not somehow seem appropriate, but you know what I mean.;)
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Yes
Thank you
💙💙🌻
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Thank you for sharing this. It seem that so many time those that create so
beautifully suffer so deeply.🙏🙏🌺
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You are right. I think it is their sorrow that causes their creative power
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ottima poetessa, sì
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Molto brava
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Che triste Fine spesso gli animi più sensibili sono i primi anon resistere alla vita.
Shera💙
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Forse é una certa dose di insensibilità che salva dall’abisso
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È molto soggettivo e nn credo che la sensibilità si possa ‘dosare’.
Sherazade 💙🌻
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🌸🌸🌸
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Sad.. things like this are still going on today, it’s total madness..
The governing bodies to which these struggling individual’s live, should stand up and listen to those who fight a fight from within themselves, the can learn if the take more notice, from those who have been blessed, those who had little to no choice other than to stay strong whilst standing face to face with tgere adversity..
Those who had no option other than to simply learn themselves, how to reverse or combat there adversity..
More needs to be done..
I believe those who suffer, may progressively get worse over time..
Unatural fuel, in which fuels the fuel within our bodies enough inorder to disrupt the bodies vital organs and make the bodies vital organs Disfunctional,
Simply needs to be better understood, we need to first solve, inorder so we can make actual change.. 😉👍🙏💙💙💙
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Thank you for your thought-provoking comment
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😉😊👍🙏💙
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Buon Ferragosto, Luisa! ❤
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Buon ferragosto anche a te.
Un abbraccio
🤗☀️🤗
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Grazieeeee, Luisaaaa ! ❤
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😚❣😚
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[…] poet Anne Sexton (see here) was born on 9 November […]
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[…] poet Anne Sexton (see here) was born on 9 […]
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