The Death Notebooks

Anne Sexton a brilliant controversial poet who took her own life at age 46, in 1974 even though she had religion is puzzling. Anyway suffering from bouts of mental breakdowns, and guilt from having committed adultery (with other women and therapists) she was in an enormous amount of pain. Being an impressively accomplished woman, her writings appearing in the New Yorker, Harper's, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1966, just to give some examples her depression, memory lapses, and guilt took over to the point of tragedy. Mental illness, like cancer does not care who you are, it just attacks. The Death Notebooks, are beautifully written, however she already had a plan to commit suicide, as she was writing them and was preparing for the Day. Most of the poems in this book embody difficulty since she mocks in a spiritual way her own depression and towards the end of the book, she begins to write "Psalms". She asks for mercy, through her prose over all the dirty little sins she had committed during her lifetime. She is about to off herself and writes about heaven and challenges her readers with Christ imagery, she assumes there is a heaven where things are better wherever that may be. She prays and rejoices of wonderful things to come painting a delightful portrait that makes you wonder if she truly believes in it or not. Most of the poems are about rage and, desperation that represent most of the time some kind of repressed depression. "The Furies" section and the we have the "the Death Baby" Then she become religious, so be it I suppose. I hope she found what she was looking for after her death. It has always been understood that people that have faith and commit suicide are engaging in a BIG sin. I like Sexton's poetry books, however this one just made me ponder more. If you are in a good frame of mind, read it.