Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath: Death, Womanhood, and Poetry

Introduction: Two Poets, One Obsession

There can be no doubt that Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath have given literature enduring works that represent the best of contemporary poetry. The notion that they would not have been as popular had they not committed suicide is unfounded, because both poets were able to touch upon issues that connected with readers on a deeply personal level. Both women, while suffering mentally, embraced their womanhood and wrote about the passions and pains of being female in an oppressive contemporary world. Sexton and Plath expressed an unusual attraction to death — particularly through suicide — as a final act that would prevent anyone else from having control over them.

Each poet connects with female readers in a way that feels genuinely real, looking at life from a woman's point of view. Regardless of how these poets died, their poetry would remain significant because of its treatment of life, death, and what it means to be a woman. As confessional poetry more broadly demonstrates, art rooted in raw personal experience carries a force that outlasts biographical circumstance.

Sexton and Plath: Confessional Voices and Their Appeal

Anne Sexton's poetry was first utilized as a form of therapy that blossomed into a remarkable talent. Sexton won many awards for her poetry because her work is straightforward — especially in regard to her depression. She was open about her illness, and this openness allows readers to feel closer to her and her experience. Maxine Kumin states that Sexton's poetry remains popular because "no other American poet in our time has cried aloud publicly so many private details" (Kumin xix). Kumin maintains that Sexton's poetry attracts many readers, "especially women, who identified strongly with the female aspect" (Kumin xix) of it. Sexton's ability to write about issues such as death and suicide set her apart from many other poets because she is not an outsider looking in — she is on the inside, peering out into a world that does not know exactly what to do with her.

Similarly, Sylvia Plath's work is appreciated in the literary community because she too was painfully honest about subjects that were considered taboo. She was not afraid to take poetry to new places, and she certainly was not afraid to speak about things that made her feel passionate — even when those things were painful.

A Shared Fascination: Death and Suicide in 'Sylvia's Death'

Sexton and Plath shared a deep fascination with death and suicide. Perhaps the poem that best emphasizes both women's fascination with suicide is Sexton's "Sylvia's Death." In this poem, the poet reveals the poetic dimension of death and suicide. Jeffrey Berman contends that while Sexton believed the art of literature was strong enough to save lives, she simultaneously "found the subject of suicide irresistible" (Berman). Berman writes that Sexton knew her fascination with death sounded strange and that "people cannot understand" (Sexton qtd. in Berman 192). The poem "glamorizes suicide as an irresistible longing" (Berman 3).

Berman also maintains that Plath's suicide had a "permanent influence on Sexton, planting a seed, or at least fertilizing one that had already been planted, that would bear terrible fruit a decade later" (192). He reports that Sexton spoke of her reaction to Plath's death, stating: "Her death disturbs me . . . Makes me want to do it too. She took something that was mine — that death was mine! Of course it was hers too. But we both swore off it, the way you swear off smoking" (Sexton qtd. in Berman 192). Sexton also saw Plath's suicide as an "outcome to which she was herself inevitably fated" (Berman 192).

Suicide connected the two women in a way that is certainly unusual, but that unusual bond is part of what made them the respected poets they are today. The speaker in "Sylvia's Death" speaks candidly about death and the connection the two women felt toward it. Death was something the two "drank to, / the motives and then the quiet dead" (Sexton 26–27). Death is personified in the poem and seems to follow both women. The poet further states that they "store him up / year after year, old suicides / and I know at the news of your death / a terrible taste for it, like salt" (44–45).

The poet also expresses jealousy toward Plath, who managed to carry out suicide first. She calls her friend "Thief!" (16), because Plath took the death the speaker felt was her own. She tells her dead friend that she stands at the same precipice with her arms "stretched out into that stone place" (54). The poem closes with the speaker addressing her friend in a friendly, sisterly voice, recognizing that Plath had finally become more fully herself in death.

Plath's 'Lady Lazarus': Dying as Art

Plath's fascination with death and suicide pervades a remarkable portion of her poetry. One poem that captures her obsession most vividly is "Lady Lazarus." In this poem, Plath is openly frank about her previous attempts at suicide. The poem reads essentially as a lament for the act of being saved from herself. Rather than viewing death as something dreadful, the poet treats death and dying as an art form. She also sees herself as a work in progress, since death is something she has not yet been able to achieve. The poet declares, "Dying / Is an art, like everything else. / I do it exceptionally well" (Plath, "Lady Lazarus" 43–45).

For the poet, death provides an escape from those who want to control her. She even views her doctor as an enemy because he wants her to live. She admits that her previous attempts were "meant / To last it out and not come back at all" (38–39), and we are told that the current attempt was "Number Three" (22). This detail makes plain the depth of her seriousness on the matter. We can be certain she will attempt suicide again from the lines, "Soon the flesh / The grave cave ate will be / At home on me" (16–18). We can also conclude that the poet will consider herself successful only when she is dead.

Those who attempt to prevent her from dying are her enemies, as demonstrated in her hostility toward her doctor. She fights to have control of her own life, and the only way she feels she can claim that control is through death — which, ironically, surrenders all control. If death is an art, the poet sees herself as something of an artisan, claiming she does it "exceptionally well" (45) and that dying is "easy enough to do in a cell" (49). She attempts death because it "feels like hell. / I do it so it feels real" (26–27).

Conclusion: The Enduring Legacy of Sexton and Plath

Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath are poetic geniuses whose fame was cut short alongside their lives. While many argue that neither poet would have been as popular had they lived, this is simply not the case. Their poetry stands alone because, more than anything, it is real. Sexton and Plath were not ashamed of confronting their feelings and presenting them honestly. Both poets suffered from depression that forced them to view death in an unusual way — it could even be said that they held death and dying in high regard.

Their fascination with death went beyond the ordinary in that they imagined attaining it through suicide, a subject both poets confronted at a deeply personal level. Plath's suicide left Sexton feeling sorrowful and jealous as she watched her friend attain what she had always wanted. Both women also expressed their womanhood through poetry, with subjects ranging from their relationships with their children to their relationships with men — and with fathers in particular. These poets undoubtedly gained wider notoriety when they committed suicide, but their poetry had already captured an audience. Throughout the years, Sexton and Plath are remembered for what they wrote far more than for how they died.

Works Cited

Berman, Jeffrey. Surviving Literary Suicide. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.

Kumin, Maxine. Introduction. The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1981.

Plath, Sylvia. "Daddy." Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed., vol. E. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2007.

---. "Lady Lazarus." Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed., vol. E. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2007.

Sexton, Anne. "The Starry Night." Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed., vol. E. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2007.

---. "The Truth the Dead Know." Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed., vol. E. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2007.

---. "Sylvia's Death." Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed., vol. E. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2007.