The two poets in the Boston Brahmin group who could really write were Berryman & Plath. Sexton is interesting for the same reasons that Jerry Springer or reality TV are “interesting.” The poet in that tendency who deserves to be rediscovered, though, is George Starbuck.
 I read this on your blog, and i was wondering if i could question you on it. I am assuming that I am misreading this, and you are not talking about the context of Plath or Sexton here, but some form of poetics.
That said, I view Plath as more solipsistic then Sexton. The narcism of comparing her father to the Nazis in Daddy, the necrophiliac striptease of Lady Lazarus-even Colossus that never moves, never quests and stays in place-like the statue in fact.
Sexton and Plath had the same pleasures and horrors, was a woman and from the same time and place- but Sexton had a questing that I do not see in Plath-even in the self indulgence of Masterbation (the ballad of the lonely masturbator) or the obsessive disorder of adultery (For my Lover, Returning to his wife)
As well, the source material that Sexton uses seems to range farther-into vernacular forms(the fairy yale poems), traditional narratives(the diary in 18 days without you), religious texts(the repetitive psalm like elements of The Furies), and something that approaches an essay(The Jesus Papers).
So I know I sound like a fan boy here, and I haven't really read Plath in her fullness, but I was wondering why you thought this about Plath, when I would have made it vice versa.
Also I wanted to ask you about Berryman and Sextons shared religious views-what did your make of their "awful rowing towards god" especially in reaction to Catholicism; and what you made of Robert Lowell in this group.