To Bedlam and Part Way Back Summary

To Bedlam and Part Way Back, Part I

To Bedlam and Part Way Back is Anne Sexton's first book of poetry. It announces her presence to the literary world and establishes her intimate, confessional style. Given the book's highly autobiographical nature and the author's history of mental illness, the subject of the book is very obviously Anne Sexton's first breakdown and subsequent stay in a private psychiatric hospital. Part I, in particular, deals with the Sexton's loss of touch with reality and the trauma of her hospitalization. "You, Doctor Martin" thrusts the reader into Bedlam, its measured stanzas and formatted rhyme scheme belying its imagery and subject matter, which is that of a patriarchal psychotherapist presiding over his patients in a mental institution.

"Kind Sir: These Woods" is a childlike meditation on the...