The Complete Poems: Anne Sexton [Paperback]

Anne Sexton (Author), Maxine Kumin (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 1999

From the joy and anguish of her own experience, Sexton fashioned poems that told truths about the inner lives of men and women. This book comprises Sexton's ten volumes of verse, including the Pulitzer Prize-winner Live or Die, as well as seven poems form her last years.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

She drew her poems from a great depth in herself, and they continue to stir us...Her voice remains a distinctive one in American poetry of the past half century. -- J.D. McClatchy --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

45 Mercy Street
The Abortion
The Addict
Admonitions To A Special Person
After Auschwitz
Again And Again And Again
All My Pretty Ones
The Ambition Bird
And One For My Dame
The Angel Food Dogs
Angels Of The Love Affair: 1. Angel Of Clean Sheets
Angels Of The Love Affair: 1. Angel Of Fire And Genitals
Angels Of The Love Affair: 3. Angel Of Flight And Sleigh Bel
Angels Of The Love Affair: 4. Angel Of Hope And Calendars
Angels Of The Love Affair: 5. Angel Of Blizzards And Blackb
Angels Of The Love Affair: 6. Angel Of Beach Houses And Picn
Anna Who Was Mad
The Assassin
August 17th
August 8th
The Author Of The Jesus Papers Speaks
Baby Picture
The Ballad Of The Lonely Masturbator
Bat
Bayonet
The Bells
The Big Boots Of Pain
The Big Heart
The Black Art
The Break
The Break Away
The Breast
Briar Rose (sleeping Beauty)
Buying The Whore
Buying The Whore
The Child Bearers
The Child Bearers
The Children
Christmas Eve
Cigarettes And Whiskey And Wild, Wild Women
Cinderella
The Civil War
Clothes
Cockroach
The Consecrating Mother
Consorting With Angels
Courage
Cripples And Other Stories
Crossing The Atlantic
A Curse Against Elegies
Daddy Warbucks
The Dead Heart
The Death Baby
The Death King
The Death King
The Death Of The Fathers: 1. Oysters
The Death Of The Fathers: 2. How We Danced
The Death Of The Fathers: 3. The Boat
The Death Of The Fathers: 4. Santa
The Death Of The Fathers: 5. Friends
The Death Of The Fathers: 6. Begat
Demon
Despair
The Division Of Parts
Divorce
Divorce, They Name Is Woman
The Doctor Of The Heart
Doctors
Doors, Doors, Doors: 1. Old Man
Doors, Doors, Doors: 2. Seamstress
Doors, Doors, Doors: 3. Young Girl
The Double Image
Dreaming The Breasts
The Earth
The Earth Falls Down
Earthworm
Eighteen Days Without You, Sels.
Elegy In The Classroom
Elizabeth Gone
End, Middle, Beginning
The Errand
The Errand
The Evil Eye
The Evil Seekers
The Expatriates
The Fallen Angels
The Falling Dolls
The Farmer's Wife
Faustus And I
February 11th
February 17th
February 20th
February 21st
February 3rd
February 4th
The Fierceness Of Female
The Fire Thief
The Firebombers
The Fish That Walked
Flee On Your Donkey
Flight
Food
For Eleanor Boylan Talking With God
For God While Sleeping
For John, Who Begs Me Not To Enquire Further
For Johnny Pole On The Forgotten Beach
For Mr. Death Who Stands With His Door Open
For My Lover, Returning To His Wife
For The Year Of The Insane
The Fortress
Frenzy
The Frog Prince
Funnel
Ghoss
God's Backside
The God-monger
Godfather Death
Gods
Going Gone
The Gold Key
Grandfather, Your Wound
Gull
Hansel And Gretel
Her Kind
The Hex
The Hoarder
Hog
Hornet
Horse
The House
Housewife
Hurry Up Please It's Time
I Remember
Imitations Of Drowning
In Celebration Of My Uterus
In Excelsis
In The Beach House
The Interrogation Of The Man Of Many Hearts
The Inventory Of Goodbye
Iron Hans
Is It True?
It Is A Spring Afternoon
January 19th
January 1st
January 1st
January 24th
Jesus Asleep
Jesus Awake
Jesus Cooks
Jesus Dies
Jesus Raises Up The Harlot
Jesus Suckles
Jesus Summons Forth
Jesus Unborn
Jesus Walking
Jesus, The Actor, Plays The Holy Ghost
June Bug
Just Once
Ke 6-8018
Keeping The City
Killing The Love
Killing The Spring
Kind Sir: These Woods
The Kiss
The Kite
Knee Song
Lament
Landscape In Winter
Leaves That Talk
The Legend Of The One-eyed Man
Lessons In Hunger
Letter Written During A January Northeaster
Letter Written On A Ferry While Crossing Long Island Sound
Letters To Dr. Y.
Little Girl, My String Bean, My Lovely Woman
The Little Peasant
Little Red Riding Hood
A Little Uncomplicated Hymn
Live
Lobster
Locked Doors
The Lost Ingredient
The Lost Lie
Love Letter Written In A Burning Building
The Love Plant
Love Song
Love Song For K. Owyne
Loving The Killer
Lullaby
Madame Arrives In The Mail
The Maiden Without Hands
Making A Living
Man And Wife
March 4th
March 4th
March 7th
Mary's Song
May 30th
Menstruation At Forty
The Money Swing
Moose
The Moss Of His Skin
Mother And Daughter
Mother And Jack And The Rain
Mothers
Mr. Mine
Noon Walk On The Asylum Lawn
Not So. Not So
The Nude Swim
O Ye Tongues
Oh
Old
Old
Old Dwarf Heart
One-eye, Two-eyes, Three-eyes
The One-legged Man
The Operation
The Other
Pain For A Daughter
The Papa And Mama Dance
The Passion Of The Mad Rabbit
The Play
The Poet Of Ignorance
Porcupine
Portrait Of An Old Woman On The College Tavern Wall
Praying On A 707
Praying To Big Jack
Protestant Easter
Raccoon
Rapunzel
Rats Live On No Evil Star
The Red Dance
Red Roses
The Red Shoes
Riding The Elevator Into The Sky
Ringing The Bells
The Risk
The Risk
The Road Back
The Room Of My Life
Rowing
The Rowing Endeth
Rumpelstiltskin
Said The Poet To The Analyst
The Saints Come Marching In
The Sea Corpse
Seal
Self In 1958
The Sermon Of The Twelve Acknowledgments
Sheep
The Shout
The Sickness Unto Death
The Silence
Small Wire
Snail
Snake
Snow
Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs
Some Foreign Letters
Somewhere In Africa
Song For A Lady
Song For A Red Nightgown
Speaking Bitterness
Speaking Bitterness
The Stand-ins
Star-nosed Mole
The Starry Night
A Story For Rose On The Midnight Flight To Boston
Suicide Note
The Sun
The Surgeon
The Surgeon
Sweeney
Sylvia's Death
The Taker
Talking To Sheep
Telephone
Telephone
That Day
There You Were
Those Times
Three Green Windows
To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Triumph
To Like, To Love
To Like, To Love
To Lose The Earth
Torn Down From Glory Daily
The Touch
The Truth The Dead Know
The Twelve Dancing Princesses
The Twelve-thousand-day Honeymoon
The Twelve-thousand-day Honeymoon
Two Hands
Two Sons
Unknown Girl In The Maternity Ward
Us
Venus And The Ark
The Waiting Head
Waking Alone
Walking In Paris
The Wall
Wallflower
Wanting To Die
Water
The Wedding Night
The Wedding Ring Dance
The Wedlock
Welcome Morning
Whale
What The Bird With The Human Head Knew
What's That
When Man Enters Woman
When The Glass Of My Body Broke
Where I Live In This Honorable House Of The Laurel Tree
Where It Was At Back Then
The White Snake
The Wifebeater
The Witch's Life
With Mercy For The Greedy
Woman With Girdle
The Wonderful Musician
Words
Yellow
Yellow
You All Know The Story Of The Other Woman
You, Doctor Martin
Young
Your Face On The Dog's Neck
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (April 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395957761
• ISBN-13: 978-0395957769
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,157 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #36 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Poetry
  • #75 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > United States

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complete Indeed - Perfect!, January 13, 2004

By 

foundpoem - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Poems: Anne Sexton (Paperback)

_
You can like, or dislike, Anne Sexton. I won't describe her work (other reviewers have, and if you're here you're at least familiar), but say that if you've loved any poetry by Sexton, I highly recommend this book.

It's organized, chronologically, by her books (and hence her life): each poem from each book is within this one, plus some previously unpublished poems. Each of her books--in this case, chapters--is thematically consistent: fairy tales (Sexton-style "homages"), "love poems," time in the institution, etc.

You may not love every book/chapter, but the volume is a must-own. I don't see a need to buy "Love Poems," for example, or all or some of the rest of her books, when they're all in here - and each one not priced all that differently from this entirety. (It's also not oppressively long and hard to hold like some "complete" collections.)

Within this book, if you don't connect to one, two, or any of her other books, you've got them at hand and while enjoying the material you do--be it institution or masturbation--you'll be familiar with the rest.

Anne Sexton is my favorite poet, I admit, but when I reread a poem I far more often pick up this volume than the individual books.

As well, the chronological organization of "Complete Poems" tells a story itself - Sexton's life through her confessional poetry. It becomes a memoir, of sorts. While reading, you can easily see the year of each book's/chapter's publication. And in this way, the volume becomes a story and a biography.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry as Therapy, April 9, 2001

By 

James Chong - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Poems: Anne Sexton (Paperback)

What first drew me to the poet Anne Sexton was a fragment I read from an essay in which she discussed the death of fellow American poet Sylvia Plath. What struck me was not just the disarming honesty of Sexton's remorse, but also the glimmer of a slightly less generous sentiment that belied her sadness. The precise nature of this sentiment became evident to me once I read Sexton's poem "Sylvia's Death," which revealed that Sexton's grief stemmed more from a profound sense of being left behind than from a sense of losing someone dear. In the poem, which is heartrending in its sincerity, Sexton mournfully addresses Plath: "Thief -- / how did you crawl into, / crawl down alone / into the death I wanted so badly and for so long, / the death we said we both outgrew, / the one we wore on our skinny breasts." What this passage and the entirety of her poem "Wanting to Die" reveal is just how clearly Sexton was aware of this death wish, this "suicide," as not only a disease of the mind, but a hunger -- an inexplicable and ever-present craving for permanent closure to consciousness. The overwhelming tone of "Sylvia's Death" is one of a woman who feels cheated out of something rightfully hers. Indeed, for Sexton, suicide was an inevitability -- she lived out her existence always with the awareness that she would end it by her own hand -- and many of the poems that made her name were a reflection of this very way of being. For those who deal with clinical depression as a way of life, the truth of the pain that rings from Sexton's verse is almost refreshing, and, in a sad sort of way, therapeutic.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sexon's Work Is Both Gritty and Incandescent, December 21, 1999

By 

"lauren1564" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Poems: Anne Sexton (Paperback)

To read the poetry of Anne Sexton is to drown in the moment between sleeping and waking. Although Sexton's poems range in tone from gritty to incandescent, her content is consistently sharp, insightful, and stinging. She's one of those rare talents who manages to write with a purpose AND a passion. The first time I read her work, the thought that sprang to mind was: "Wow. She's writing what everyone else is only thinking." Sexton has a great capacity to verbalize the unspeakable, and she does it in such a way that it scars you and heals you simultaneously. Take, for example, her "Transformations" series (the re-written fairy tales.) Here we have incest, beauty, fear, love, repression, magic...all tangled between translucent words with spines of steel. To say I am in awe of this book is to only scratch the surface.