Anne Sexton Research Paper

“She is an important poet not only because of her courage in dealing with previously forbidden subjects, but because she can make the language sing” (Erica Jong). Anne Sexton was an honest and unapologetic young writer, who was unafraid of expressing the true realities of life through the medium of her poetry. As a young woman of the 50s, 60s and 70s, Anne was inspired by poets such as Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell. The 50s and 60s were a time of oppression and sexism towards women, and Anne’s writing often challenged that of the social norms of her era. She was bold enough to incorporate topics such as abortion and addiction into her poetry; topics which were typically looked down upon. Anne Sexton rose from a risque adolescent life, struggling …show more content…
Anne Sexton was one of the very first writers to include such explicit topics as depression, menstruation, addiction, suicide, religion and abortion. She was an advocate for the unspoken truths among all. It was her ability to write the truth that would earn her the recognition she so deserved: “Sexton’s work was enormously popular during her lifetime and she was the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Frost Fellowship to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, the Levinson Prize, the American Academy of Arts and Letters traveling fellowship, the Shelley Memorial Prize, and an invitation to give the Morris Gray reading at Harvard. She also received a Guggenheim Fellowship, grants from the Ford Foundation, honorary degrees, and held professorships at Colgate University and Boston University” (www.poetryfoundation.org). Anne’s work left a huge mark on the world she left behind, as displayed by her numerous awards and honors. Her later works were far less acknowledged, on account of her downward spiral into addiction and madness. However, one award-- worth all of the attention it got-- was given in 1967, “...at the height of her career, Sexton won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for the book Live or Die” (www.newworldencyclopedia.org). This would be one of the most important highlights of her career, and would ultimately define Anne’s artistic ability. On her last day, October 4, 1974, Anne attended a lunch with her friend and fellow author Maxine Kumin. It was seemingly a normal day, but “On her return, she had put on her mother’s fur coat, poured herself a glass of vodka, locked herself in the garage and started the engine of her car, hence committing suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning” (www.thefamouspeople.com). It was a dramatic end to a dramatic life, but it was not to be taken for granted. To this day, Anne’s life will be