Live or Die is a 1966 poetry collection by Anne Sexton.
It is, like much of Sexton's work, of the "confessional" style of poetry in which poets write about the problems of their own lives. Sexton suffered from bipolar disorder and thoughts of suicide for much of her life (and in fact did eventually kill herself in 1974, shortly before her 46th birthday). The poems, which are presented in straight chronological order as they were written, deal with Sexton's stays in mental hospitals, her thoughts of suicide, and her complicated feelings towards her parents and children. Among the poems in this collection is "Sylvia's Death", written about the suicide of Sexton's colleague and personal friend, Sylvia Plath.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Sexton's father. In "And One for My Dame" she writes of how he sometimes "hid in his bedroom on a three-day drunk." In "Flee on Your Donkey" she calls him "a cured alcoholic." In a memorable line from "Cripples and Other Stories" she says "My father was fat on scotch. It leaked from every orifice."
- All Girls Like Ponies: In "Pain for a Daughter" Sexton writes about her daughter's "love for horses" and how, while her daughter is "too squeamish to pull / a thorn from the dog's paw," she was still able to lance a boil and drain pus from the neck of a horse. However, a horse later steps on her foot, badly injuring it, and Sexton is startled when her daughter calls "Oh my God!" instead of calling for her mother.
- Artistic License: Sexton wrote "Menstruation at Forty" about her biological clock, and other things like the resemblance of menstrual blood to the blood of slit wrists, on the occasion of her birthday. Her 35th birthday.
- Awful Wedded Life: Sexton's 25-year marriage to Alfred Sexton, in "Man and Wife". She writes that "We are not lovers. We do not even know each other." She compares the two of them to two pigeons, sitting mutely on a branch...but she also addresses him as "darling" signaling that she hopes to reconnect.
- Central Theme: Sexton's constant thoughts of death, wishes for death, thoughts of suicide. There are poems in this collection titled "Imitations of Drowning", "Wanting to Die", and "Suicide Note". Most famously there is "Sylvia's Death" about the suicide of Sexton's good friend Sylvia Plath. The finale "Live" is an uncharacteristically hopeful piece where Sexton watches the sun on a spring day and resolves to live for the future.
- Driven to Suicide:
- "Sylvia's Death" is about the suicide of Sylvia Plath. Sexton writes about how she and Plath had talked about suicide together and had both welcomed death, and how "I know at the news of your death, a terrible taste for it, like salt."
- "The Addict" is about Sexton's pill habit and how "now they say I'm an addict." But in reality she "promised to die" and the pills are actually "a diet from death" where she is trying to kill herself "in small amounts."
- Then there's "Suicide Note" in which Sexton writes that it would be better to "drop myself quickly/into an old room." She admits that she is "only a coward" but also that everyone dies and that she might as well "go now / without old age or disease".
- Grief Song:
- "Somewhere in Africa" was written barely a week after the death of John Holmes, a poet and Sexton's professor at Tufts, "mourned as father and teacher."
- Possibly the most famous poem in the book is "Sylvia's Death", written just six days after the suicide of Sylvia Plath. Sexton calls her friend a "Thief!" but also wonders how, after they had both talked of how they wanted death, Sylvia decided to go on alone.
- Little People Are Surreal: "To Lose the Earth" is already surreal enough, as Sexton is in a boat at the mouth of a grotto, watching a musician play a flute in the cave by the sea. It gets even stranger towards the end when a dwarf rises out of the water in the cave, playing another flute with "his enormous misshapen mouth."
- My Biological Clock Is Ticking: "Menstruation at Forty" has Sexton specifically saying "The womb is not a clock," but also wondering about having a son after she had borne two daughters.
- National Geographic Nudity: Alluded to in "Somewhere in Africa". Sexton imagines her friend and teacher John Holmes, dead of cancer, born away by a God who is a "tribal female", "naked to the waist" with "wild breasts."
- The Shrink: "Flee on Your Donkey" was written by Sexton while staying in a mental hospital, and is addressed to her attending psychiatrist. She writes of how he gave up cigarettes "each New Year" and how he once dragged her into his office after she collapsed in the parking lot.
- Title Drop: Closing poem "Live" begins with the epigram "Live or die, but don't poison everything...".
- Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Invoked. It is easy to note how this poetry collection is a constant stream of despair and hopelessness with the writer talking about nothing but suicide and death. Sexton herself notes how this irritates others:And further, everyone yelling at you
to shut up. And no wonder!
People don't like to be told
that you're sick
and then be forced
to watch
you
come
down with the hammer. - Traveling Salesman: Her father's job, as mentioned in book-opening poem "And One for My Dame." Little Anne envied her father's freedom of movement.
- Wine Is Classy: Inverted in "Two Sons", when Anne, resentful after both of her daughters have married and gone away, decides to "open some cheap wine" to celebrate.
