One might be afraid . . .

From Anne Sexton's letter to W. D. Snodgrass, February 24, 1959, from 40 Clearwater Road, Newton Lower Falls, Mass.

. . . I read "Heart's Needle" and I changed. It made me see myself new. In seeing you, in feeling your marvelous restrained sense of immediate loss, I saw my own loss in a new color. And I changed. I said to Fred [Morgan:], "A poem isn't supposed to do that! It isn't supposed to be that vital!" . . . meaning, of course, how unusual, how much genius and the fine grip of talent, is...