Sexton - BK

You can't help but draw parallels between Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath, however there are differences between the two female poets as well. While the article explains the whole "female poet being more likely to have psychiatric problems" argument, it is also stated that Sexton was instructed to write to help her depression (known as the writing cure). I don't think it worked, but you can see in Plath's works such as "Wanting to Die" and "Suicide Note", that she put all of her feelings on to paper, openly expressing that suicide in on her mind. The way she describes it made me think of Plath discussing how it is an art form, although Sexton doesn't use the same metaphor, she talks about how a carpenter doesn't ask why build, just what tools. This is a comparison between suicide being a profession and that people who are suicidal aren't questions if they will do it, just how.

A lot of the info in the article by Kaufman we have seen before because it was referenced a lot in the articles on Plath.

I think that Sexton's style is more interesting than Plath's, she uses more of a narrative style that allows the reader in to her life, and get a new view point whereas Plath is more figurative. Also I think the rhythm in Sexton's poems are more enticing,

"Like a shoe factory amid the spruce trees / it squats; flat roof and rows of windows spying / through the mist." (Funnel)

"Tonight all the red dogs lie down in fear / and the wide and daughter knit into each other / until they are killed" (The Wifebeater)

With Sexton, I need to be in a certain mood to read her poetry. Most that I have read are very depressing and not usually the type of poetry I gravitate towards reading, although I think her poems are of merit.