Live or Die
by Anne Sexton 
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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize: A gripping poetry collection mapping the thorny journey from madness to hope With her emotionally raw and deeply resonant third collection, Live or Die, Anne Sexton confirmed her place among the most celebrated poets of the twentieth century. Sexton described the volume, which depicts a fictionalized version of her struggle with mental illness, as "a fever chart for a bad case of melancholy." From the halls of a psychiatric hospital-"the scene of the disordered show more scenes" in "Flee on Your Donkey"-to a child's playroom-"a graveyard full of dolls" in "Those Times . . ."-these gripping poems offer profound insight on the agony of depression and the staggering acts of courage and faith required to emerge from its depths. Along with other confessional poets like Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell, Sexton was known for grappling with intimate subjects traditionally considered taboo for poetry such as motherhood, menstruation, and drug dependence. Live or Die features these topics in candid and unflinching detail, as Sexton represents the full experience of being alive-and a woman-as few poets have before. Through bold images and startlingly precise language, Sexton explores the broad spectrum of human emotion ranging from desperate despair to unfettered hope. show lessTags
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ThingScore 50
The blunt fact is that Mrs. Sexton, driven by experiences which no man or woman should be asked to bear, needs a language of unlimited finesse, if words are to live up to actions and sufferings. It is not a matter of gypsy phrases or the gift of gab. To negotiate the terror of her experiences, she ought to receive every grace of words, since words are so much of her constructive life. For show more common purposes her endowment is more than adequate: even for exorbitant purposes it is often enough. But in several poems Mrs. Sexton's language has the effect of suspending our belief, when belief is nearly all that matters. show less
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116+ Works 6,347 Members
Anne Sexton (1928-1974) is one of the most influential & frequently discussed American poets. She lived all her life in the Boston area. (Publisher Provided) Poet Anne Sexton was born in Newton, Massachusetts in 1928. She attended Garland Junior College for a year and at nineteen, married Alfred Muller Sexton II. After the birth of her first show more daughter in 1953 and her second daughter in 1955, Sexton suffered mental breakdowns, which included attempting suicide on her birthday in 1955. She had been diagnosed with postpartum depression. Both times she was hospitalized at Westwood Lodge and it was there that her doctor got her to pursue her interest in writing poetry. She enrolled in a poetry workshop at the Boston Center for Adult Education in 1957, which is where she met fellow poet, and soon to be close friend, Maxine Kumin. Sexton then wrote "To Bedlam and Part Way Back" (1960), "All My Pretty Ones" (1962), and in 1966, Sexton won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for "Live or Die." Sexton wrote about controversial subjects, which included abortion and drug addiction. As with many other "confessional" poets, Sexton wrote of emotional anguish which came from her battle with mental illness. In 1974, she lost that battle and committed suicide. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Anne Sexton has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.
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- Reviews
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- Languages
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- ISBNs
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