A Sense of Doubt blog post #1462 - Anne Sexton's poem "The Author of the Jesus Papers Speaks"

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1462 - Anne Sexton's poem "The Author of the Jesus Papers Speaks" - Writerly Wednesday

Sunday I did some exploration of poetry, some free-writing, and then read some poems. I saved Anne Sexton for last because she is superior to the others.

It was; It is.

Though Margaret Atwood is my favourite writer and a poet, I tend to think of her as a fiction writer first and a poet second, though she may not wish to be regarded as such, if I have to choose a favourite from writers who are exclusively poets (or were), I choose Anne Sexton with whom I have always felt a strong affinity.

We came to read the poem "The Author of the Jesus Papers Speaks" because of a book about freewriting called Writing Down the Bones, in which the author, Natalie Goldberg, referenced another poem in this book by Sexton, and then I spotted the "Jesus Papers," which I had not read in a long time.

Seeing a possible connection because of the naming of Lazarus, I looked up some articles.

Here's the links to the two articles, the poem, and another blog along with pictures.

I have other entries in the works. I am working on some analysis and rediscovery of Emily Dickinson, but Anne Sexton has seized me once again in her strong hands and squeezed.

Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton: Feminism and the reclamation of self-portraits

Shafinur Nahar, Scholar, Kashmir and South Asia Studies, University of Kashmir.

Poetry Editor, Prachya Review.

Abstract: This paper aims to focus on two most celebrated American female poetesses Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath’s poetry, how both of them talk about their own personal suffering through the poetry in a time when American women were not allowed to practise all the right as males and the women were bound to some social constructs. Sexton and Plath are called the confessional poets of twentieth century and they spoke on behalf of American ordinary women.

Key Words: Frustration, American women, Body, Suffering, Suicide.

https://www.academia.edu/25658443/Sylvia_Plath_and_Anne_Sexton_Feminism_and_the_reclamation_of_self-portraits?auto=download


http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/104407/10/10_chapter%206.pdf.pdf

THE ART AND TECHNIQUE IN SEXTON’S POETRY
The critic M. L. Rosenthal was among the first to use the label ―confessional poetry‖ in the modern sense. Robert Lowell‘s Life Studies is a collection of poems full of references to mental illness, a theme that became characteristic of the confessional genre later. In his analysis entitled ‗The Confessional Poets‘, Robert Phillips asserts that ―a confessional art is a means of killing the beasts which are within us, those dreadful dragons of dreams and experiences that must be hunted down, cornered, and exposed in order to be destroyed‖. (Phillips 173) Rosenthal was the first to use the term ‗confessional poetry‘ for the particular work produced by the poets of sixties. He defined confessional poetry as the one in which ―the private life of the poet himself, especially under stress of psychological crisis, becomes a major theme.‖(Rosenthal 25)

The Author Of The Jesus Papers Speaks - Poem by Anne Sexton

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-author-of-the-jesus-papers-speaks/

In my dream
I milked a cow,
the terrible udder
like a great rubber lily
sweated in my fingers
and as I yanked,
waiting for the moon juice,
waiting for the white mother,
blood spurted from it
and covered me with shame.
Then God spoke to me and said:
People say only good things about Christmas.
If they want to say something bad,
they whisper.
So I went to the well and drew a baby
out of the hollow water.
Then God spoke to me and said:
Here. Take this gingerbread lady
and put her in your oven.
When the cow gives blood
and the Christ is born
we must all eat sacrifices.
We must all eat beautiful women. 

Anne Sexton

This link is interesting and partly in another language.

https://federicomayol.wordpress.com/2016/07/24/anne-sexton-the-jesus-papers/

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1902.20 - 10:10

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