-End? Powerful or ghoulish? ANNE SEXTON (1928-74) -From fashion model to creative writing professor -Poetry/psychoanalysis as self-help against life-long depression -Confessional (friendship with Plath unto death) and fairy-tale retellings (Transformations) -Pulitzer followed by suicide Truth the Dead Know” “The -poet as necromancer -who is darling” interlocutor? “my -Ironic contrasts: parents’ (real-life) funeral VS goes on” “life VS “sea” “sky” words, gate,” stones,” boats” VS “weighted,” “stiff” “iron “wind…like “stone “touch” (“entering” it) love, VS “cultivate” “kill,” “die” -last stanza: why shoes”? “without Why to be blessed”? “refuse Significance of eye and knucklebone” “throat, ALLEN GINSBERG (1926-97) -Radical, progressive, high-strung upbringing—> poet, activist, public figure -Columbia scholar; met group who’d become the Beats (“Howl”) beaten/beatific anticonformist live truly, express yourself fully in all ways eastern philosophy, drugs, sex, bebop and jazz VS American Nightmare
-End? Powerful or ghoulish? ANNE SEXTON (1928-74) -From fashion model to creative writing professor -Poetry/psychoanalysis as self-help against life-long depression -Confessional (friendship with Plath unto death) and fairy-tale retellings (Transformations) -Pulitzer followed by suicide “The Truth the Dead Know” -poet as necromancer -who is “my darling” interlocutor? -Ironic contrasts: parents’ (real-life) funeral VS “life goes on” “sea” VS “sky” “weighted,” “stiff” words, “iron gate,” “wind…like stones,” “stone boats” VS “touch” (“entering” it) love, “cultivate” VS “kill,” “die” -last stanza: why “without shoes”? Why “refuse to be blessed”? Significance of “throat, eye and knucklebone” ALLEN GINSBERG (1926-97) -Radical, progressive, high-strung upbringing—> poet, activist, public figure -Columbia scholar; met group who’d become the Beats (“Howl”) beaten/beatific anticonformist live truly, express yourself fully in all ways eastern philosophy, drugs, sex, bebop and jazz VS American Nightmare
USPoetryNotes.docx