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Anne Sexton Reads
Anne Sexton's poems are brutally honest, often controversial, and always thought-provoking. Her work continues to dazzle new generations of readers and listeners.
On this recording, made shortly before her death in 1974, Ms. Sexton reads twenty-four poems selected from different periods in her creative life, all in a dramatic, resonant voice that complements the deeply personal quality of her dark poetic explorations. Ms. Sexton had a wonderful, unique literary vision, and she ranks among the great poets of our century.
Side 1:
Her Kind, The Ambition Bird; Ringing the Bells, Music Swims Back toMe; The Truth the Dead Know, With Mercy for the Greedy; The StarryNight; Letter Written on a Ferry While Crossing Long Island Sound;Little Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely Woman; The Little Peasant
Side 2:
Self in 1958, Divorce, Thy Name Is Woman; Gods Making a Living;Jesus Cooks, Jesus Walking; The Fury of Overshoes; The Fury of Cocks;Rowing, Riding the Elevator in the Sky, The Play; The RowingEndeth; Us; The Touch
On this recording, made shortly before her death in 1974, Ms. Sexton reads twenty-four poems selected from different periods in her creative life, all in a dramatic, resonant voice that complements the deeply personal quality of her dark poetic explorations. Ms. Sexton had a wonderful, unique literary vision, and she ranks among the great poets of our century.
Side 1:
Her Kind, The Ambition Bird; Ringing the Bells, Music Swims Back toMe; The Truth the Dead Know, With Mercy for the Greedy; The StarryNight; Letter Written on a Ferry While Crossing Long Island Sound;Little Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely Woman; The Little Peasant
Side 2:
Self in 1958, Divorce, Thy Name Is Woman; Gods Making a Living;Jesus Cooks, Jesus Walking; The Fury of Overshoes; The Fury of Cocks;Rowing, Riding the Elevator in the Sky, The Play; The RowingEndeth; Us; The Touch
- GenresPoetry
Audio Cassette
First published January 1, 1992
2 people are currently reading
230 people want to read
About the author
Anne Sexton
150 books2,500 followersAnne Sexton once told a journalist that her fans thought she got better, but actually, she just became a poet. These words are characteristic of a talented poet that received therapy for years, but committed suicide in spite of this. The poetry fed her art, but it also imprisoned her in a way.
Her parents didn’t expect much of her academically, and after completing her schooling at Rogers Hall, she went to a finishing school in Boston. Anne met her husband, Kayo (Alfred Muller Sexton II), in 1948 by correspondence. Her mother advised her to elope after she thought she might be pregnant. Anne and Kayo got married in 1948 in North Carolina. After the honeymoon Kayo started working at his father-in-law’s wool business.
In 1953 Anne gave birth to her first-born, Linda Gray. Two years later Linda’s sister, Joyce Ladd, was born. But Anne couldn’t cope with the pressure of two small children over and above Kayo’s frequent absence (due to work). Shortly after Joy was born, Anne was admitted to Westwood Lodge where she was treated by the psychiatrist Dr. Martha Brunner-Orne (and six months later, her son, Dr. Martin Orne, took over). The original diagnosis was for post-natal depression, but the psychologists later decided that Anne suffered from depression of biological nature.
While she was receiving psychiatric treatment, Anne started writing poetry. It all started after another suicide attempt, when Orne came to her and told her that she still has a purpose in life. At that stage she was convinced that she could only become a prostitute. Orne showed her another talent that she had, and her first poetry appeared in print in the January of 1957. She wrote a huge amount of poetry that was published in a dozen poetry books. In 1967 she became the proud recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Live or Die (1966).
In March 1972 Anne and Kayo got divorced. After this a desperate kind of loneliness took over her life. Her addiction to pills and alcohol worsened. Without Kayo the house was very quiet, the children were at college and most of Anne’s friends were avoiding her because they could no longer sympathize with her growing problems. Her poetry started playing such a major role in her life that conflicts were written out, rather than being faced. Anne didn’t mention a word to Kayo about her intention to get divorced. He knew that she desperately needed him, but her poems, and her real feelings toward him, put it differently. Kayo talks about it in an interview as follows: “... I honestly don’t know, never have known, what her real, driving motive was in the divorce. Which is another reason why it absolutely drove me into the floor like a nail when she did it.”
On 4 October 1974 she put on her mother’s old fur coat before, glass of vodka in hand, she climbed into her car, turned the key and died of monodioxide inhalation. She once told Orne that “I feel like my mother whenever I put it [the fur coat] on”. Her oldest daughter, Linda, was appointed as literary executor and we have her to thank for the three poetry books that appeared posthumously.
Her parents didn’t expect much of her academically, and after completing her schooling at Rogers Hall, she went to a finishing school in Boston. Anne met her husband, Kayo (Alfred Muller Sexton II), in 1948 by correspondence. Her mother advised her to elope after she thought she might be pregnant. Anne and Kayo got married in 1948 in North Carolina. After the honeymoon Kayo started working at his father-in-law’s wool business.
In 1953 Anne gave birth to her first-born, Linda Gray. Two years later Linda’s sister, Joyce Ladd, was born. But Anne couldn’t cope with the pressure of two small children over and above Kayo’s frequent absence (due to work). Shortly after Joy was born, Anne was admitted to Westwood Lodge where she was treated by the psychiatrist Dr. Martha Brunner-Orne (and six months later, her son, Dr. Martin Orne, took over). The original diagnosis was for post-natal depression, but the psychologists later decided that Anne suffered from depression of biological nature.
While she was receiving psychiatric treatment, Anne started writing poetry. It all started after another suicide attempt, when Orne came to her and told her that she still has a purpose in life. At that stage she was convinced that she could only become a prostitute. Orne showed her another talent that she had, and her first poetry appeared in print in the January of 1957. She wrote a huge amount of poetry that was published in a dozen poetry books. In 1967 she became the proud recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Live or Die (1966).
In March 1972 Anne and Kayo got divorced. After this a desperate kind of loneliness took over her life. Her addiction to pills and alcohol worsened. Without Kayo the house was very quiet, the children were at college and most of Anne’s friends were avoiding her because they could no longer sympathize with her growing problems. Her poetry started playing such a major role in her life that conflicts were written out, rather than being faced. Anne didn’t mention a word to Kayo about her intention to get divorced. He knew that she desperately needed him, but her poems, and her real feelings toward him, put it differently. Kayo talks about it in an interview as follows: “... I honestly don’t know, never have known, what her real, driving motive was in the divorce. Which is another reason why it absolutely drove me into the floor like a nail when she did it.”
On 4 October 1974 she put on her mother’s old fur coat before, glass of vodka in hand, she climbed into her car, turned the key and died of monodioxide inhalation. She once told Orne that “I feel like my mother whenever I put it [the fur coat] on”. Her oldest daughter, Linda, was appointed as literary executor and we have her to thank for the three poetry books that appeared posthumously.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 9, 2014
this recording is the reason why i don't smoke. her voice is horrible. (her poetry is brilliant.)
January 30, 2015
Love Sexton.
There is drama here-- but what good poetess isn't a tortured soul. Even so, she is authentic and raw.
From an era, where women were voicing themselves freely, she relishes this freedom. Strong, lovely, brazen. She gives perspective of the not quite discarded lover in "We all know the story of the other woman" or coping with aging when so much value is tied up in the fleeing maidens -- Youth and Beauty. I find her topics both saucy and brazen.
I think she wished to be Plath. Yet she was her own. I like Anne better.
If you are fan of bold, intelligent women. This is your girl.
There is drama here-- but what good poetess isn't a tortured soul. Even so, she is authentic and raw.
From an era, where women were voicing themselves freely, she relishes this freedom. Strong, lovely, brazen. She gives perspective of the not quite discarded lover in "We all know the story of the other woman" or coping with aging when so much value is tied up in the fleeing maidens -- Youth and Beauty. I find her topics both saucy and brazen.
I think she wished to be Plath. Yet she was her own. I like Anne better.
If you are fan of bold, intelligent women. This is your girl.
August 22, 2008
Oh, I forgot she'll have an American accent (!) and that her voice will be quite low (like a good alto) and raspy because she smoked so much. It's quite sing-song, but hearing it rather than reading it, makes it a novelty.
Since she reads the poems from Rowing the recording was presumably done shortly before the end of her life. By this time she must've read some of those poems to audiences a dozen times - could this be why she almost seems to sing them?
Since she reads the poems from Rowing the recording was presumably done shortly before the end of her life. By this time she must've read some of those poems to audiences a dozen times - could this be why she almost seems to sing them?
April 1, 2007
If you have never heard Anne Sexton read her poetry in her own voice this is an experience even the casual reader will benefit from. Here she sounds like she has just smoked a pack of cigarettes while facing down every regret and then looks up to find herself with an audience. Mesmerizing.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews