Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

By Anne Sexton

Book Overview

This selection, which is drawn from Pulitzer Prize-winning poet 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 master.

From the introduction by Diane Wood Middlebrook and Diana Hume George: "Ample but not overwhelming...Selected Poems represents the range and elegance of Anne Sexton's poetry from beginning to end."

"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

ANNE SEXTON (1928-1974) was an American poet known for her highly personal, confessional verse. A celebrated poet of mid- twentieth century America, Sexton's impressive body of work continues to be widely read and debated by literary scholars and cultural critics alike. Her poetry explored the many paradoxes within human behavior and motivation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618057048
• ISBN13: 9780618057047
• Release Date: June 2000
• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.3"

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.