Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

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.

Anne Sexton was born in 1928 and lived all her life in the Boston area. In 1967 she received the Pulitzer Prize. She committed suicide in 1974.

Introduction

xi

Chronology

xxiv

Early Poems

The Balance Wheel (1958)

3

(1)

An Obsessive Combination of Ontological Inscape, Trickery and Love (1959)

4

(1)

My Friend, My Friend (1959)

5

(4)

From To Bedlam and Part Way Back (1960)

You, Doctor Martin

9

(2)

Kind Sir: These Woods

11

(1)

Music Swims Back to Me

12

(1)

Elizabeth Gone

13

(1)

Some Foreign Letters

14

(3)

Said the Poet to the Analyst

17

(1)

Her Kind

18

(1)

Unknown Girl in the Maternity Ward

19

(2)

What's That

21

(1)

The Moss of His Skin

22

(1)

Ringing the Bells

23

(1)

Lullaby

24

(1)

The Lost Ingredient

25

(1)

For John, Who Begs Me Not to Enquire Further

26

(2)

The Double Image

28

(7)

The Division of Parts

35

(8)

From All My Pretty Ones (1962)

The Truth the Dead Know

43

(1)

All My Pretty Ones

44

(2)

Young

46

(1)

Lament

47

(1)

To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph

48

(1)

The Starry Night

49

(1)

Old Dwarf Heart

50

(1)

I Remember

51

(1)

The Operation

52

(4)

The Abortion

56

(1)

With Mercy for the Greedy

57

(2)

In the Deep Museum

59

(2)

The Fortress

61

(2)

Old

63

(1)

Housewife

64

(1)

Letter Written on a Ferry While Crossing Long Island Sound

65

(3)

For Eleanor Boylan Talking with God

68

(1)

The Black Art

69

(4)

From Liver or Die (1966)

And One for My Dame

73

(2)

Flee on Your Donkey

75

(7)

Somewhere in Africa

82

(1)

Consorting with Angels

83

(2)

The Legend of the One-Eyed Man

85

(3)

Protestant Easter

88

(3)

For the Year of the Insane

91

(3)

Walking in Paris

94

(2)

Menstruation at Forty

96

(2)

Wanting to Die

98

(2)

Little Girl, My Stringbean, My Lovely Woman

100

(3)

Your Face on the Dog's Neck

103

(3)

Self in 1958

106

(2)

In the Beach House

108

(1)

Cripples and Other Stories

109

(3)

Pain for a Daughter

112

(2)

The Addict

114

(2)

Live

116

(7)

From Love Poems (1969)

The Breast

123

(2)

In Celebration of My Uterus

125

(2)

Loving the Killer

127

(3)

For My Lover, Returning to His Wife

130

(2)

It Is a Spring Afternoon

132

(2)

Just Once

134

(1)

You All Know the Story of the Other Woman

135

(1)

The Ballad of the Lonely Masturbator

136

(2)

The Papa and Mama Dance

138

(2)

Us

140

(1)

Mr. Mine

141

(1)

Song for a Lady

142

(1)

From Eighteen Days Without You

143

(6)

December 2

December 11

December 18

From Transformations (1971)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

149

(5)

Rapunzel

154

(5)

One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes

159

(5)

The Frog Prince

164

(5)

Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty)

169

(8)

From The Book of Folly (1972)

From Thirty Poems

Mother and Daughter

177

(2)

Dreaming the Breasts

179

(1)

The Silence

180

(2)

From The Death of the Fathers

182

(5)

Oysters

How We Danced

The Boat

Santa

Angels of the Love Affair

187

(16)

Angel of Fire and Genitals

Angel of Clean Sheets

Angel of Flight and Sleigh Bells

Angel of Hope and Calendars

Angel of Blizzards and Blackouts

Angel of Beach Houses and Picnics

From The Jesus Papers

Jesus Suckles

191

(1)

Jesus Awake

192

(1)

Jesus Asleep

193

(1)

Jesus Raises Up the Harlot

194

(1)

Jesus Cooks

195

(1)

Jesus Summons Forth

196

(1)

Jesus Dies

197

(2)

Jesus Unborn

199

(1)

The Author of the Jesus Papers Speaks

200

(3)

From The Death Notebooks (1974)

For Mr. Death Who Stands with His Door Open

203

(2)

The Death Baby

205

(5)

Dreams

The Dy-dee Doll

Seven Times

Madonna

Max

Baby

From the Furies

210

(6)

The Fury of Beautiful Bones

The Fury of Guitars and Sopranos

The Fury of Cooks

The Fury of Cocks

The Fury of Sunsets

The Fury of Sunrises

Clothes

216

(2)

From O Ye Tongues

218

(11)

First Psalm

Fourth Psalm

Eighth Psalm

Tenth Psalm

From The Awful Rowing Toward God (1975)

Rowing

229

(2)

Riding the Elevator into the Sky

231

(2)

When Man Enters Woman

233

(1)

The Earth

234

(2)

Jesus, the Actor, Plays the Holy Ghost

236

(2)

Frenzy

238

(1)

The God-Monger

239

(2)

Small Wire

241

(1)

The Rowing Endeth

242

Posthumously Published Work

45 Mercy Street (1976)

From Beginning the Hegira

The Money Swing

247

(1)

Food

248

(1)

From Bestiary U.S.A.

Hornet

249

(1)

Star-Nosed Mole

250

(1)

Whale

251

(1)

From The Divorce Papers

Where It Was At Back Then

252

(1)

From Eating the Leftovers

Divorce, Thy Name Is Woman

253

(2)

The Consecrating Mother

255

(2)

Words for Dr. Y. (1978)

From Letters to Dr. Y.

[What has it come to, Dr. Y.]

257

(2)

[I called him Comfort]

259

(1)

[It's music you've never heard]

260

(1)

[I'm dreaming the My Lai soldier again]

261

(1)

From Scorpio, Bad Spider, Die: The Horoscope Poems

January 24th

262

(1)

February 3rd

263

(1)

February 21st

264

(1)

From Last Poems

In Excelsis

265

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Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials