Not all poetry was deeply personal. Confessional poets such as Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath were key figures in making poetry a more personal experience. They weren’t afraid to put anything in their work and that is shown in Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” where she talks about multiple suicide attempts. Although she uses very smooth and poetic language to describe her struggles with suicide, readers can have a clear picture of what she’s describing in the poem. She played a big role in confessional poetry and poetry as a whole, but I would like to focus on her good friend Anne Sexton’s “Sylvia’s Death”.
Sexton’s comparison in “Sylvia’s Death” shows that she had the same desire for death as Plath. Sexton wanted to do what Sylvia Plath could do which was kill herself. Sexton gave both an envious and mournful tone. She shows her mournfulness early in the poem by asking, “Sylvia was where did you go...”. She was genuinely hurt by the loss of her friend who she related to on such a deep level. I think the poem also shows how Anne Sexton was going through multiple stages of grieving. Things like “Thief” or “how did you crawl...into the death I wanted so badly for so long” clearly shows the envy /jealousy of Plath’s death throughout those middle stanzas, after she was very mournful in the beginning. Then she tries to make light of Plath’s death by saying “what is your death but an old belonging”, what do you think she means by that? I feel as if Sexton is just trying to find ways to get over Plath’s death throughout this whole poem. What good did this poem bring? This poem was very vulnerable, personal and powerful. I think both Sexton and Plath were able to bring to light the emotional struggles that women could be facing without anyone knowing, and they were able to bring those problems/emotions to the public with their personal experiences and I think that was why she was a key in changing the was poetry was approached. Do you?
3 Comments
10/6/2019 08:27:24 am
Both Plath and Sexton are two of my favorite confessional poets. It's hard to know exactly what they're trying to say in their work because the topic is so complex. I like to believe maybe as you said, Sexton is trying to come to terms with Plath's death while imitating her writer's voice out of respect for her. Maybe in a twisted way she is envious, but I don't know if that's envy because Plath went before her, as in she wanted to die first/die in general, or if she does want to live on this earth just without Plath and without the pain she feels. I think it would be beneficial to analyze Sexton's other work along with this one so we can compare her language.
Reply
Cassidy Mustard
10/6/2019 03:49:56 pm
I actually focused on this topic, too! I thought it was cool how you started by introducing the fact that they were both Confessional poets and the going into what that meant. I completely agree with you when you said that both Sexton and Plath trying to bring to light the emotional struggles that women could be facing without anyone knowing, and them bringing those problems/emotions to the public with their personal experiences. Overall a great blog and I think we agree on most of what you wrote!
Reply
Sarah Bevan
10/6/2019 04:33:59 pm
This a very insightful post - I loved your interpretation of Sexton's grief process, and how you interpreted it as Sexton envying Plath for accomplishing a goal they shared. I agree that it is a very vulnerable piece, and it speaks to a particular emotion that is difficult to endure, let alone to articulate. Great work!!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorHello, my name is Jeremy Chenault. I'm an English major at Wright State University, I love to stay active, write poetry and most importantly learn. A more in depth idea about me can be found here, A Little More. Categories |