Anne Sexton's Poetry: Reflections on Death

Abstract

          Anne Sexton was encouraged by her therapist Dr. Martin Orne to take up poetry about her experiences in her therapist's treatment of her mental illness as this might help others with similar    dif­ficulties to feel less alone, thus, there must be a focus on these thoughts or what is related to it, ie, death. The events of Sexton's life are revealed in her poems such as her therapy. Yet, the poems are not as autobiographical as they seem, that they are poems, not memoirs, in which there are recurrent symbolic themes and poetic techniques that make Sexton's work impressive. Sexton seems obsessed with the idea of death. She wrote about wanting to die, the nature of suicide, and about her suicide attempts before she carried them out. Death to her is horrifying and unpleasant though she viewed death as a state which exists in life; it is "here", ie, in life and all the time ; so, to her , death and life are inseparable— in her heart lies nothing but damage, annihilation, ie, death. Death offers her a refuge as much as her poetry does.