(1) What does Sexton’s ambivalence toward self-study share with Emily Dickinson’s “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant”?
(2) Contrast the loss of self in violence and martyrdom in “Her Kind” with similar scenarios in Richard Wright’s narrative poem “Between the World and Me” or Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale.
(3) What does the repeated phrase “I have been her kind” in “Her Kind” mean? Does the phrase have universal significance for Sexton?
(4) In “Her Kind,” how does Sexton characterize loneliness? Is being lonely a positive or wholly negative quality?
(5) Discuss Sexton’s image of womanhood in “Housewife.”
(6) Discuss the speaker’s relationship to her parents in “The Truth the Dead Know.” Does the speaker seem overly saddened by her parents’ deaths?
(7) Compare the tone and imagery of “The Truth the Dead Know” with Sexton’s “A Curse Against Elegies” or “The Touch.” Determine which poem is the more powerful and universal and which is more personal.
