Plath, Lowell & Sexton

Through my readings of these poets I like the fact that they are all connected. I feel that you can see this in their poetry as well. This must have been a great escape with your buddies to sit back a discuss poetry. This really relates to how many poetry clubs are formed. The three poets fit well under the "Confessional" style of poetry. I enjoyed reading the selected poems from these poets.

While studying their work I also like reading about their relationships with each other and other poets. This selection is taken from Poets.org

Plath’s poetry is often associated with the Confessional movement, and compared to poets such as her teacher, Robert Lowell, and fellow student Anne Sexton.

Plath:
Often, her work is singled out for the intense coupling of its violent or disturbed imagery and its playful use of alliteration and rhyme. poets.org

It was also interesting to see that "The Colossus" was the only poem published while she was a live. It would be nice to hear from Plath after the publication of her other poems and see how much of an impact it has made on her.

Through her poems they are very woman driven, and the role of the woman exposed. I feel that her poems were very easy to read, and enjoyed the style in which they were formed.

Lowell:
I liked Lowell's poem Skunk Hour. This poem was written for Elizabeth Bishop. Having done my lesson last week on E. Bishop I like the connection I see between the two poets. Shunk Hour showed a lot of Bishop's likes in it. Her love of travel and imagery were found throughout.

Lowell's friendship with Plath also played key roles in his writing as it was Plath and Bishop who reviewed his work.

For the Union Dead was and interesting poem. It seemed to cross time lines. I like the line /... Behind their cage,/ yellow dinosaur stemshovels were grunting/. This was a very vivid moment for me in the poem.

Sexton:
Here again we have made a connection between Lowell, Plath and Sexton. Sexton was Plath's student and attended a workshop of Lowell's. I not aware if Lowell and Sexton had any connection outside of the workshop. Sexton work that we read this week was up and down for me. I understood most selections, but had trouble with other.
"Her Kind" was easy to follow, while underneath meaning was not very straightforward for me."And One for My Dame" seemed to follow the life of her father, and then end with the life of her husband. I could be completely wrong, but this is what I took from the poem.

All-in-all, I enjoyed reading the poems from these poets. I would like to see a round table discussion with the Sexton, Lowell and Plath. I think this would be a very interesting event that would give an insight into the life of these 3 poets!

CJ