Fascinating discussion about Anne Sexton. I first learned about her when I was in high school in the 1970's and at the public library I found the book "Anne Sexton--A Self-Portrait in Letters". I'm glad I read that wonderful book when I was still young enough to be deeply impressed by what I read in a way that I don't think we have as we get older. I much appreciate Ms. Middlebrook's comment about how sincerity isn't enough in writing. At another You Tube video I got a tirade from a younger person about how passion is all that matters in writing poetry. How wrong that person was! Writing is WORK, hard and plenty of it and, difficult as it can be, it's also a joy. I don't recall if I just thought or put it in my reply but I may have said how writers such as Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, and Viriginia Woolf would have agreed that passion isn't enough for and isn't all that is needed for good writing. Writing is a craft that one learns and hopes to master over a lifetime of work.
With no academic background to speak of Anne Sexton still won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1967. She may have been the last non-scholar to win the award.
Fascinating discussion about Anne Sexton. I first learned about her when I was in high school in the 1970's and at the public library I found the book "Anne Sexton--A Self-Portrait in Letters". I'm glad I read that wonderful book when I was still young enough to be deeply impressed by what I read in a way that I don't think we have as we get older. I much appreciate Ms. Middlebrook's comment about how sincerity isn't enough in writing. At another You Tube video I got a tirade from a younger person about how passion is all that matters in writing poetry. How wrong that person was! Writing is WORK, hard and plenty of it and, difficult as it can be, it's also a joy. I don't recall if I just thought or put it in my reply but I may have said how writers such as Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, and Viriginia Woolf would have agreed that passion isn't enough for and isn't all that is needed for good writing. Writing is a craft that one learns and hopes to master over a lifetime of work.
Well done. Inner chaos does wonders for a poet, but it's a hard road.
With no academic background to speak of Anne Sexton still won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1967. She may have been the last non-scholar to win the award.
All poetry is confessional, whether we intend it or not
almost finished the book...
Tricky person. Brilliant poet. I have a reading of her Mercy Street on TH-cam.
I've done a reading of Mercy Street on my Poemsapennyeach channel
4:08 the 'alcoholic' pouring forth. Thats the berryman trap. thats what I call it.
Diane Middlebook should be ashamed of herself, as should Sexton's psychiatrist. Speaking of ghouls....