There really ought to be a major documentary about Anne Sexton. She was so fascinating, complex, passionate, strong and vital yet so fragile. This is a fabulous programme. Thank you for uploading!
Her personality made her so freaking attractive. I love her poetry. Honest and strong with 50s 60s undertone from a woman that understood that era and the women that inhabited that period of time. She was no whiner... She was a real woman.
anne sexton is a true picture of an american tragedy for me with all of the ugly and beauty. a brilliant poet, an artist that weaved and crafted her darkness and maladaptation, articulated it in such a way that not many others have like that. and she lived and breathed her art, it was a reflection of her, and her a reflection of it: between the possible abuse from whoever it could have been during her childhood/teenage years, her chronic mental illness and instability during a time when it was already hard enough just being a woman, her crimes against her children and husband, her affairs, and subsequently her suicide. she lived that darkness that many have danced with, been touched by, but she was able to eloquently express it in her work. she lived some of the most ugly, rough things in life and translated it into something to behold. had many things been different, had society been different, who knows where she could have went. my heart does go out to her daughter, and in anne’s death, i hope that she has been able to make some sense of it all and find peace.
This short film brought tears to my eyes as frequently occurs when I read Sexton's poetry. Her work is miraculous, her life a tragedy, her death both an end and a beginning of answers for which we do not even know the questions. Thank you for touching on so much in such a condensed amount of time.
@@efthimiakonstantinides4699 I've read her daughter's books and I agree, it's very disturbing. I love Anne's poetry, but frankly she was a very sick and disturbed woman who put her daughter through awful abuse. I feel terrible for Linda and can relate to having an awfully mentally ill mother. I've emailed her before and she seems to be in a good place now, despite all she's been through. She's very brave and strong.
She broke all the rules to quote a literary friend. She has inspired me since high school, even to start my own writing. She had an imp , a demon hidden inside that overran her eventually. You could see how proud she is of her depth. What was it that turned that talent against herself as in so many artists who take their own lives?
She and Sylvia were from the same city and Sylvia adopted a Tranatlantic accent. She was very insuecure when she got to Cambridge and American and her voice was unrecognizable from when she livied in the USA. Anne Sexton was a great poet as was Sylvia Plath.
@@lancejohnson127 Read Red Comet by Heather Clark published last year. Over 1,000 pages of meticulous research writtem over a period of 8 years, Clark who is a renowned scholar had access to more information than everr known. That is where I got my infomration. I don't just make comments that can not be corroborated.
Wonderful stuff, thanks for uploading. Anne is so very interesting, and I have never heard anyone read their work so beautifully and rhythmically. A very interesting poet.
1st ever impression of even knowing of her - let alone that of her works; seems to embrace the astute candor of the possible Looks, Voice, & Actions of actress Robin Tunney (Agent Lisbon) on the Mentalist Series. Her questioning perspectives are certainly a perfect hand to glove fit for the late Leonard Cohen's words - ''Your body will never be familiar.'' - ''How can I begin anything new with all of yesterday still in me?'' - ''I was born in a suit.'' Perhaps the latter he'd meant as related to his ever chosen attire of clothing. It could have been too; as a poetic sense of duality, to apply to the (ongoing spiritual law suit) we all are nakedly & reluctantly dress in - just from being an inherent human. @ any measure of what is believed to be the sleeve attire each poet should reveal of just what being a vessel of the feeling of life's presence is to them... She is from the heart, descriptively spot on! -Just another one of those many ones of we who are awaiting His Just Return. 102621
One of the greatest writers in any form. "Flee on Your Donkey" and "The Double Image" alone are such profound works, not to mention so many others. Would love to write a film about her starring Debra Winger :?)
@@whudjawant4413 I'm sure Lowell considered Bishop his "soul mate". He had mad love for her which was more than platonic even though he was well-aware she was lesbian. Although she indulged him - not physically, of course - I always got the impression her feelings were not as strong. Although Bishop abused herself - she was an alcoholic - she was not self destructive to level of the poets who actually killed themselves . . neither was Lowell for that matter. Lowell's cross-to-bear was his severe bipolar depression which rendered him immobile every 2 years or so. BTW, if you are interested, the greatest insight you will ever get into either Lowell or Bishop is from the vast collection of their letters to each other. Hope this was helpful . .
Either her, Ann Hathaway (For the sound of her voice) or Natalie Portman for that intelligence). I mean looks are important but they'd have to get the voice right.
She changed afterwards the last lines of The Addict? Here she says: What a lay me down this is with two pink, two orange, two green, two white goodnights. It's asleep, it's asleep you can keep.
No Sylvia Plath without Anne Sexton - I thought Sylvia was totally unique when I first read her - then I came across Ann Sexton - but there is nothing new under the sun -we are all influenced by reading our peers - each person must add what he or she can - it is a never-ending process - .
We love the Work, but curb our praise, disparaging the poet's humanity, their flaws, their scars, the deftly shaped, the texture, of their voice, their eye, their brutal Art. How sanctimonious and pure we are, that we fly so high above them, Because they, have fallen, fallen, fallen, Apart, for us, to see, and feel, and even Be, and if so, only temporarily, Great, but Nowhere great, as the poet's sapient thee. - copyright 2021 elizabeth star dylan moran, ravenswood notch and niles canyon, CA.
@@8angst8 So tell me!? Who or what do I rehash? I doubt if you are literary enough to show me. That is oirginal writing and I'm sorry that you cannot appreciate that. But, please enlighten me! Give me the volume and page and chapter.
@@inlandonline Everything you wrote in your initial post sounded hackneyed and "received." Like bad poetry from, say, 1950, with a splash of post-2016 PC Twitter thrown in.
Gosh. An accomplished poet whose works lifted her to the top of her art, with a complex inner life. Cursed with both penetrating brilliance and alluring beauty. She could have been a fashion model earlier in her life if she wanted to.
If only Anne Sexton could have read a book like Jennifer Michael Hecht's *Stay: A History of Suicides and the Philosophies Against It* but it was not published until 2014.
She's wearing what was known as, then ...A " Bullet Bra" .... back when bra's weren't padded and were interestng in the way they presented the goods ... and that breakdown she mentioned wasn't a breakdown ... it was an illumination from which was born a poet... thanks to Jseph Cambell we know this ...special people have special initiations into the conscious world .. and often are driven mad from the world misunderstanding of them.
@@mslitchick I looked further into her life and they said she was bi-polar ... But... this much I know, a lot of the most creative writers poets and sculptors and painters, and physicists/scientists have some sort of "mental" affliction that seems to spark great art or powerful shamans and witches, and she was one of , and still is one of the greats. Godess bless them all , then and now. Thank you for your reply!
Why are you writing about her bra? It has absolutely nothing to do with..well, anything..and yes, she had MANY breakdowns. She was schizophrenic, highly medicated and molested her daughter more than once. She went into trances. Read a book about her life, instead of focusing on her "goods". She was unwell from an early age.
@@asong4thedead I read Middlebrook's book. So what? It didn't change my perception of Sexton as a great poet. Look at the boring crap Robert Lowell was writing before he started to write like Sexton -- I mean, adopt her personal approach. Nobody ever thought of doing that. It's unfortunate that now all we get in American poetry is the personal I poem, and 99.9 % of these poets aren't nearly as interesting as Sexton or Lowell. Their poems are as trivial and boring as they are. 60 years after the publication of "To Bedlam and Halfway Back" and people are still reading her and none of her books are out of print.
@@JeffRebornNow Of course she was a great poet. I don't think that's under dispute. I just don't see the point in focusing on her "goods", as opposed to her poetry and intellect, that's all. If you read her daughter's book(s) I think you'd have a better understanding of the pain and torment she caused her family.
Very disturbing person given the information about how she sexually abused her daughter and what she put her through. It is interesting from a psychological perspective though
An unpleasant history surrounding her children, difficult to listen to given what is now known about their abuse. There is a very sinister aura around her particularly when we watch the artifice of her readings.
Her poetry is the reality of too many women. Shut UUUUUPPPP... She's been misaligned enough She gave me what my mother couldn't. POETRY. and complete freedom of thought. Perhaps I am too damaged to know the difference... I cut my doll teeth on her truth. So. Whose truth do you live in? Is it real? She was. A true POET. And if she scares you? She SHOULD...
