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Anne Sexton’s second collection of poems, All My Pretty Ones, takes its title from MacDuff’s speech (Act IV, scene iii) in Macbeth, when he learns of the murder of his wife and children. Outside of scripture, it’s probably one of the most heart wrenching passages in all of literature. To further underscore this, Sexton also included an excerpt from the speech as an epigram for the collection:
All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What! All my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fel...more
All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What! All my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fel...more
The poems about abortion and the crucifixion are the most memorable in this collection. My wife read a biography of Sexton recently and so I was aided by her addenda about details of her life, her alcoholism, her obsession with death, etc. I already knew that, like Sylvia Plath and so many others, she ended her own life, so the death theme was no surprise to me in reading this collection, but that doesn't mean I'm enamored of it either. The poem "The Fortress", written about a nap with her daugh...more
I'm sort of - skeptical about poetry. Especially confessional poetry, which fairly or unfairly I tend to characterize as self-indulgent and sentimental (I think these two qualities often go hand in hand, although they are not, in and of themselves, necessarily going to make me dislike something: I love Gone With the Wind). And poetry is, anyway, a masochistic-self-reflecting art ("I - I - I" - whether or not the I is the poet, it's inescapable).
But, Anne Sexton! Holy shit!
I mean, you read these...more
But, Anne Sexton! Holy shit!
I mean, you read these...more
What I love most about Anne Sexton’s poetry is the rambunctious voice she constructs that gives the reader an unsteady feeling while reading her work. Whether tackling the brave subject of abortion or examining the depths of her isolation, the reader never knows if we will find Sexton gravely “wondering how anything fragile survives” (20) or teasing how “It would be pleasant to be drunk” (67) through her troubling bouts with depression. Either way, she is adept at grabbing and holding our atten...more
Sexton writes unflinchingly about abortion, her parents deaths, and her own illnesses. Here is a favorite line from "woman with girdle" that I could not appreciate twenty years ago when I first read this slim volume of poetry:
"Your midriff sags toward your knees;
your breasts lie down in air,
their nipples as uninvolved
as warm starfish."
"Your midriff sags toward your knees;
your breasts lie down in air,
their nipples as uninvolved
as warm starfish."
There are moments of genius and painful truth, and moments where the writing turns a strange corner and all gets lost, or turns into a new strain of prose. I am excited to read her later work and compare the two, I am guessing she becomes outstanding.
Music swims back to me.
Take a walk down Mercy Street with Anne Sexton. She'll tell you how she tapped her head like an inverted bowl, that you should name your girl children Daisy. Another obsession, old and familiar.
Take a walk down Mercy Street with Anne Sexton. She'll tell you how she tapped her head like an inverted bowl, that you should name your girl children Daisy. Another obsession, old and familiar.
Anne Sexton is at her best working within the confines of form. Her early work far overshadows her later poems, but this takes nothing away from the skill and astonishing similes of the former.
My favorite of her collections that I've read. "The Truth the Dead Know" is my favorite. It reminds me of a story I wrote.
Anne Sexton is an interesting woman, poet, mother, and I enjoyed this collection of her early poetry.
I love this collection more than love Poems. The imagery Sexton uses and the observations she makes, are often original, fresh, make you think. I like them, a lot.
My father died, and I have yet to articulate my feelings on this. The police called hours after the news report of Heath Ledger's death. I think it's strange how this association sticks in my brain. I drove to Arizona and went through his things, in his sad, mostly filthy apartment.
In her title poem, All My Pretty Ones, Sexton expresses what I cannot.
I don't know how I feel about Sexton: I don't know how I feel about writing as emotive therapy. I mean, I shouldn't really have anything against it... I think mainly I'm just opposed to the kind of hierarchical and linear relationship with "meaning" that Sexton has in her work—(even Plath leaves some room for negotiation.) But there's also something to be said for total ownership of the verb to be—especially when it remains in the disillusioned state of deterioration and emotional poverty as it...more
Painful feminist art.
Brill
Stunning.
I am re-reading some of my favorite poetry books cover to cover. I forgot just how damn great Sexton is.
Anne's Sexton's second volume is a classic of 20th Century poetry. She has found her voice: the subject matter is daring, the language is spare, the metaphors continually surprising. The first three of the book's five sections--confessional poems about her parent's deaths, an abortion, and her relationship with her daughter--are particularly fine.
Reading Anne Sexton makes me feel really tragic and introspective and epically connected to all of human history. ...What?
These poems are beautiful and honest and true. My favorites right now are "Lament," "The Starry Night," "I Remember," "The Operation," "The Abortion," "Old," and "The Black Art."
These poems are beautiful and honest and true. My favorites right now are "Lament," "The Starry Night," "I Remember," "The Operation," "The Abortion," "Old," and "The Black Art."
Wonderful. Anne Sexton is becoming another favorite poet. I posted the opening poem from this collection several years ago: "The Truth the Dead Know."
Oct 20, 2008
Anarda Nashai
added it
This book is her best. If you are looking for realism and relativity in poetry, I recommend you stop here and read.
Loved Sexton and Plath as a teenager, perhaps its time for another look.
very raw imagery. it made me think 'wow did she just say that?"
just found this at the thrift store???
May 20, 2013
Arbi
marked it as to-read
May 19, 2013
Harriet
marked it as to-read
May 15, 2013
Tan Sally
marked it as to-read
May 13, 2013
Selena Meridius
marked it as to-read
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Anne Sexton once told a journalist that her fans thought she got better, but actually, she just became a poet. These words are characteristic of a talented poet that received therapy for years, but committed suicide in spite of this. The poetry fed her art, but it also imprisoned her in a way.
Her parents didn’t expect much of her academically, and after completing her schooling at Rogers Hall, sh...more
More about Anne Sexton...
Her parents didn’t expect much of her academically, and after completing her schooling at Rogers Hall, sh...more
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“Need is not quite belief.”
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“The snow has quietness in it; no songs,
no smells, no shouts or traffic.
When I speak
my own voice shocks me.”
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More quotes…
no smells, no shouts or traffic.
When I speak
my own voice shocks me.”
Tony
Apr 24, 2011 03:29pm
Apr 25, 2011 12:30am