Anne deeply admired and attempted to emulate the confessional poem "Heart's Needle" by Shodgrass (Discovering Biographies 2). Sexton decided to enroll in Robert Lowell's graduate writing seminar at the Boston Center for Adult Education (Discovering Biographies 2). She then went on to be a scholar at the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study from 1961- 1963 (American Literature 3596). During the nineteen-sixties, Anne gave spirited public readings accompanied by the music group, "Her Kind" (Discovering Biographies 1). Despite her literary success, Sexton continually battled depression and psychosis. She began writing extremely personal verse concerning her experiences as a mental patient (Discovering Biographies 1). The chronic mental illness that controlled Anne's life was the anguished center of her family's life (Linda Sexton 1). Anne was extremely possessive of her daughter Linda and also confessed to having murderous impulses towards her (Linda Sexton 1). "I made myself numb, made my body like stone in exchange for my mother's love" Anne's eldest daughter exclaimed (Linda Sexton 1). In 1974, Anne committed suicide using carbon monoxide (Discovering Biographies 2). Even though Anne led an extremely confusing life, she was said to have lived it as a "treasury" that would be remembered forever.
Anne's "open" style of writing was a very debatable issue. Some thought Sexton was one of the best known and most controversial of the confessional poets, a group composed of New England writers who rose to prominence in the nineteen-sixties (Contemporary Literary Criticism 311). While others believed as her notoriety grew, Sexton became unable to separate her life and her art (Litz 669). Sexton's work offers the reader an intimate view of the emotional anguish that characterized her life (Academy of American Poets 1). Anne's early poetry was said to be hopeful and joyful while it became much darker in her latter years (American Literature 3591).
