New York Daily News Considers Anne Sexton's Live or Die

At the New York Daily News's Page Views Books Blog, Allison Chopin looks at Anne Sexton's third book, her 1967 Pulitzer Prize–winning Live or Die. "It serves as a memoir, though a mostly fictionalized one, of Sexton’s mental health battle, and it helped put her on the map as a talented example of the school of Confessional poetry," writes Chopin. More:

We also find some searingly beautiful bits of poetry. Sexton’s first two books are excellent, but “Live or Die” is a crowning achievement.

In the poem “Wanting to Die,” the poet’s suicidal thoughts are elusive and seductive: She calls her desire for death “the almost unnameable lust.”

In “The Addict,” she’s darkly comical about death and pills. “Don’t they know / that I promised to die! / I’m keeping in practice.”

Sexton’s legacy is sometimes overshadowed by another poet who was penning Confessional poetry around the same time and also died by her own hand: Sylvia Plath. But contrary to what some academics might say, Sexton was not just a less talented version of Plath.

First, both poets did much more than write about their depression and suicide attempts. Sexton liked to touch on the erotic, and some of her work is even more deeply personal than Plath’s.

They also weren’t necessarily rivals. “Live or Die,” published three years after Plath’s suicide, includes a tribute to Sexton’s fellow poet and friend, “Sylvia’s Death.”

The poems in this collection are harrowing, as they recount a woman’s struggle with a deep depression. But, as the title suggests, it can also be read as an affirmation of life. Sexton offers us a lot to live for.

Read the full reflection at Page Views. For the backstory to Sexton's Pulitzer win, recall this post by David Trinidad on precisely that topic.