Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton Two Confessional Poets

Confessional poetry is autobiographical, and is based on the life experiences of the poet. Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath deserve credit for revolutionizing the art of poetry writing during the mid twentieth century. I believe due to Sexton and Plath’s incredible poems, most of the poems published now tends to be “confessional poetry”.

My first book, “You Don’t Know Me”, is an example of confessional poetry. I was writing about my life experiences that were  painful, but it was so cathartic to express the pain through writing. I felt a lot better after I wrote about the depression, the suicide attempts, the unhappiness in my life.

When I look back at the dark poems in “You Don’t Know Me” they are like  photographs, snapshots, in time in my life when I needed to express the misery. I needed to experience the pain  in order to move on.

In Women’s Studies, the topic of female vulnerability is often discussed and I wonder if people like it when women are “vulnerable”?

Some art critics hate confessional poetry, because they consider confessional poetry to be a form of self loathing. Is confessional poetry art or harmful to the written word? Life isn’t perfect though life is messy, filled with ups and downs. Shouldn’t poetry reflect this fact that our lives can sometimes have moments of unhappiness and despair?

My viewpoint is, one of the reasons confessional poetry is so popular is because it is much easier to write than inspirational poetry. We all have life experiences and we can tap into these experiences and create poems. Some poetry critics believe confessional poetry is  pathetic for the poet to express his or her`s demons into the poems.  I strongly disagree that confessional poetry is not true art. I must confess, I love free verse and I don`t like traditional forms of poetry.

The quandary for Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton is, they are more “famous” for committing suicide than for  their poetry. The word “suicide” is often attached to them. The word “suicide” is such a loaded controversial term, because people have divergent views on this incendiary issue.

I honestly believe the pain and the grief was so unbearable for both Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath that they believed suicide was their only option.  In the mid twentieth century, there weren’t a lot of therapies, anti depressants, or treatments available for people suffering from mental illness.

Does it matter that Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath committed suicide? Should it matter to the reader? Should Plath and Sexton be known for the fact they both ended their lives prematurely? Does this fascinate the public and why?

Sylvia Plath committed suicide by sticking her head in an oven in 1963. Plath died at the tender age of thirty,  she was a mother of two young children. Plath had tremendous success with her poetry although she is best known for her autobiographical novel “The Bell Jar”.

According to a biography I read, Anne Sexton was fascinated by Sylvia Plath’s suicide. In fact, Anne Sexton  wrote a poem about her friend’s death. Sexton was also famous in the literary world during the 1960s and 1970s. Sexton won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her powerful collection of poetry “Live Or Die” in 1967.

Anne Sexton chose death she committed suicide at the age of forty five in 1974. Sexton locked herself in her garage started the engine of her car and committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning . Suicide, death, depression, unhappiness, are the ingredients of confessional poetry.

Sometimes I wonder if these themes in poetry are healthy for the reading audience? Should death, suicide, despair, and unhappiness be explored in art? Or should poetry be about more traditional themes like couplets & haiku’s ? Sometimes I wonder if poetry was a form of catharsis for Sexton and Plath because they both experienced so much grief in their lives?

My perspective is, perhaps the reason people are interested in Sexton and Plath’s poetry because some readers can see the veracity in their work. Maybe deep inside the minds of the readers they believe through the “poetry” are the answers to solve their questions about Sexton and Plath’s mental breakdowns?

Everyone loves drama it seems, and maybe people aren’t that interested in reading “inspirational poetry”. I honestly believe writing “uplifting poetry” is much harder than writing “confessional poetry”.

Despite Sexton and Plath tremendous success in the literary world they were both mothers during a time when America was in transition from post world war II to the capitalist world.  Does the public like to read poetry about death and self loathing because people want to “capture” the emotions of the poet?

I wonder if readers “pity” Sexton and Plath because they were unable to overcome their mental breakdowns? Do readers honestly respect both women due to their literary talents or are they “attracted” to the fact both committed suicide so young?