Anne Sexton was a well-loved confessional poet who won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1967. The winning collection, Live or Die, is commonly considered to be her best. Her poetry engages with themes of depression, relationships, and suicide and is regularly read alongside her fellow confessional poets Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell. Read more about Anne Sexton.
‘Rowing’ by Anne Sexton is a moving and unforgettable poem about depression. It was written two years before Sexton took her life in 1974.
A story, a story!
(Let it go. Let it come.)
I was stamped out like a Plymouth fender
into this world.
First came the crib
‘Red Roses’ by Anne Sexton is a story of child abuse told by a narrator, but with the vernacular, that represents the emotions and thoughts of the child undergoing the abuse.
Tommy is three and when he's bad
his mother dances with him.
She puts on the record,
"Red Roses for a Blue Lady"
‘In Celebration of My Uterus’ by Anne Sexton is an uplifting poem about the meaning of womanhood. The poem explores Sexton’s perspective on feminine identity.
Sweet weight,
in celebration of the woman I am
and of the soul of the woman I am
and of the central creature and its delight
‘Unknown Girl in the Maternity Ward’ showcases the heartbreaking moment a mother is separated from her child as she is too unwell.
Child, the current of your breath is six days long.
You lie, a small knuckle on my white bed;
lie, fisted like a snail, so small and strong
‘Pain for a Daughter’ by Anne Sexton is about a mother’s internal conversations while witnessing her daughter’s metamorphosis into a young adult.
Blind with love, my daughter
has cried nightly for horses,
those long-necked marchers and churners
that she has mastered, any and all...
‘After Auschwitz’ by Anne Sexton explores the poet’s emotional reaction to the horrors of the Holocaust and her plea to God to hear her.
‘Cinderella’ by Anne Sexton tells the story of Cinderella while also engaging with the theme of feminism and focusing on a very different ending.
‘Courage’ by Anne Sexton conveys the different ways in which a person can show courage, ranging from the seemingly insignificant to the much more heroic.
‘For My Lover Returning To His Wife’ by Anne Sexton compares the relationship the speaker has with her lover and that which he has with his wife.
‘From the Garden’ by Anne Sexton is a peaceful poem in which the speaker describes how beneficial it is to spend time in nature.
‘Her Kind’ by Anne Sexton is a thought-provoking poem in which a woman discusses and celebrates her individuality and all the things that set her apart from others.
‘The Firebombers’ by Anne Sexton is an unforgettable poem. In it, the speaker addresses America and the murders the country commits. This includes the deaths of women and children.
‘The Moss of His Skin’ by Anne Sexton is an unforgettable poem about a young girl who is buried next to her father.
‘The Starry Night’ by Anne Sexton is an ekphrastic that explores Van Gogh’s The Starry Night. It delves into the emotions that a speaker interprets in the painted elements.
‘The Truth the Dead Know’ by Anne Sexton is an emotional poem that speaks about traditions and attitudes around death, as well as Sexton’s response to loss in her own life.
‘The Witch’s Life’ is a poem about understanding the process of aging and becoming someone that you never expected to in your youth.
‘Wanting to Die’ by Anne Sexton is a poem about the poet’s desire to take her own life. It was written close to ten years before she committed suicide.
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