This paper explores the concealed narrative voice of Sexton in a
selection of her poetry, concentrating mainly on the works “All My
Pretty Ones,” “Unknown Girl in a Maternity Ward,” and “The Abortion.”
The impulse of Sexton’s voice in these poems in particular counters
the cultural spacings provided for and the inherited female traits of
(not) figuring the female voice. Sexton’s poetry seeks a redefinition of
the written text in order for that text to accommodate the real narratives
of the American female. Although not primarily a biographical study,
this paper acknowledges Sexton’s adoption of drinking habits associated
with males, in particular her father, her adaptation of female structures
and strictures of silence, initially from her mother, and also works
within but also against the reductionist labelling of the US’s Middle
Generation Poets as “confessional.”
