Product Description

This selection, which is drawn from Anne Sexton's ten published volumes of poems as well as from representative early and last work, is an ideal introduction to a great American poet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #634460 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Library Journal
Sexton claimed that poetry kept her alive through periods of suicidal self-hatred, and indeed her poetry started as therapy, a means suggested by her psychiatrist of documenting the unspeakable. This volume contains selections, many of them familiar, from her eight books. Despite professional success, she continued to suffer, but her work does more than document the pain that finally led to alcohol addiction and suicide. Labeled confessional, she preferred to be called a storyteller, often adopting a persona: "Like Oedipus I am losing my sight./Like Judas I have done my wrong." Much of the early poetry was workshop-influenced, but Sexton's music as well as her intensity and good ear ultimately come through. Rosaly De Maios Roffman, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Indiana
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"The editors of this Selected Poems have carefully chipped away at the block of marble and revealed the true figure of Sexton's work: haunted, plaintive, raucous, as often exuberantly witty as it is afflicted." -- J. D. McClatchy

Review
"The editors of this Selected Poems have carefully chipped away at the block of marble and revealed the true figure of Sexton's work: haunted, plaintive, raucous, as often exuberantly witty as it is afflicted." -- J. D. McClatchy "This selected edition of Sexton's poems, arranged chronologically and enhanced by an insightful introduction, will make her work accessible not only to students but to readers everywhere." -- Maxine Kumin

Customer Reviews

A "must" for all Anne Sexton fans.
Selected Poems of Anne Sexton draws from poet Sexton's ten published works of poems as well as from her last pieces to provide a fine introduction and overview to her best works. The editors reveal a wide range of styles and themes and provide new readers with a definitive overview. Highly recommended.

Selections superior to the Collection
I'd seriously have to bicker with another reviewer and state that Middlebrook did a fine job selecting the "most worthy" of Sexton's poetry. Let's face it: towards the end of Sexton's career as a poet, she pumped out more garbage than grandeur...and Middlebrook (whose biography on Sexton, by the way, is among the best biographies on ANYbody) seems perfectly aware of that. With "Selected Poems" in print, scholars of poetry no longer have to plow through rubble to find a few diamonds.

It's not her fault that they didn't pick her very best!
Okay. No offense to Anne Sexton, but this book just doesn't cut it. The people who did the "selecting" didn't do a very good job. Many good poems which are hard to find are found, but many of her greatest that are easily found aren't even mentioned in this book. And why does Middlebrook always do the commentaries?? I love Anne Sexton and she needs to be portrayed for her art, not for the mentally ill, depressed, phsychotic person that she was. I mean--her poetry is terrific, and personally, I don't think that Middlebrook does a very good job of summarizing Anne Sexton to the readers.