Anne Sexton (1928-1974) is probably the poet most closely associated with mental illness. Poetry was the weapon she used to combat suicidal thoughts and to survive in the desperate situation of mental breakdown. of sustenance. In fact, her poetic talent was also acquired during her illness.
Her doctor Martin Oni has always encouraged her to use poetry to adjust her collapsed spirit. "He said my poems were great, so I kept writing and writing and then gave them all to him... …I insist on writing just to satisfy him.” In 1960, Sexton's first collection of poems was published, titled "Halfway Back to the Asylum." Sexton is slightly older than Plath. Both are talented women from Boston. They are equally beautiful, sensitive, and exquisite in writing. They are also tortured by mental illness and try to find creative inspiration from it. They attended Lowell's poetry class together, got drunk together in hotels, and even discussed ways to commit suicide. There is a sympathetic friendship between them, as well as a subtle competitive relationship. In 1963, after Plath committed suicide, Sexton wrote in his eulogy "The Death of Sylvia":
O thief!
Why do you crawl in?
Climb in by yourself
I have been looking forward to death for so long and hard.
As a student of Lowell, the mentor’s experience also plays a large role in Sexton’s heart. In the spring of 1959, Lowell fell ill in class and was sent to McLean Hospital. Later, Sexton wrote in the poem "Classroom Elegy" that the clumsy Lowell was "like a big frog"——
Nonetheless, I must praise your skill.
Your madness is so elegant.
We fidgeted on our flat chairs
and pretended to organize
our records of your burly hexes,
Or ignore your swollen and dull eyes
Or ignore the prince you ate yesterday
No matter how wise, knowing and pointed he is.
She has been curious about McLean Hospital for many years. She also wants to enter McLean Hospital because Lowell and Plath have both been here and she wants to join them. She once told her friend Lois Arms, "I really want to get the McLean Hospital scholarship," as if she were talking about the American Academy of Arts' award. But Dr. Oni wouldn't let her go to McLean Hospital because the cost there was too high. Until 1966, when Sexton won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her collection of poems "To Live or Die," she was already considered successful, but she still failed to be officially admitted to McLean Hospital as she wished.
In 1968, Sexton's wish finally came true. She accepted the invitation of the McLean Hospital Library to hold a series of poetry lectures and classes for the hospital's patients. Poetry once saved Sexton from desperate situations, and she hopes other patients can get the same help. Even though Sexton has no teaching experience, and facing a room full of crazy men and women who are out of control, she has no confidence at all.
The study class is held every Tuesday night in the hospital library. Usually, Sexton will first let everyone read and discuss a few contemporary poems, and then assign homework. The classes are relatively casual, and the atmosphere in the class is the same as the mood of the patients, sometimes enthusiastic and sometimes dull. Curator Margaret Ball was responsible for collecting the weekly exercises and giving them to Sexton. The study class lasted until June 1969. The specific course content of that year is no longer available. Only some scattered memories allow us to imagine the scene of this special class.
Patient Eleanor Morris said: "In my mind, Sexton was leaning against a piano and we were sitting around on chairs. She gave us exercises and then you had to It takes a lot of courage to recite my own poems. What I remember most is her eyes, which were my hope every week. They gave me the confidence to do something." p>
Although Sexton was loved by her fellow patients, she was not satisfied with herself. In December 1973, she put some materials about the lecture at McLean Hospital into a portfolio, with the seal saying: "My first writing teaching, in 1969, was very difficult because I had little experience in crowd control. , as well as frequent student changes and nurses interrupting teaching - I need more practice to teach well.” But on the other hand, Sexton's mental condition deteriorated rapidly, and she never returned to the podium.
Eleanor Morris still remembers that in the early morning of October 5, 1974, she was awakened by a news on the alarm clock radio, and the announcer announced the death of Anne Sexton. "The radio just said she was dead, but I knew she had committed suicide, and I cried all morning," Morris said. She treasures the 1966 edition of the award-winning poetry collection Sexton gave her after a lecture. In the collection of poems "Life or Death", Sexton wrote on the title page: "My decision is 'life' - for Ellie".