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circularcubes's review against another edition
2.0
I wish I was a poetry person, but most of the poetry I read leaves me feeling like I've missed something, like I don't quite get it. There were moments in this poetry collection that I appreciated (and one poem, "Walking in Paris," that I really liked), but overall, I don't think this will stay with me for long.
milesjmoran's review against another edition
5.0
After gobbling up everything there was to do with Sylvia Plath during my college years, I found myself searching for other writers who she knew or who inspired her own writing, such as Dylan Thomas (whom she very much admired) and, of course, Anne Sexton. Her poetry hits a tender, sore part of your soul, striking tirelessly, and this collection published by Virago will always be important to me as I can remember vividly carrying this book home with me on the bus, dunking in and out of the poems, feeling its effects and listening intently to her voice. Sexton is one of, if not, my favourite poet.
ktkeps's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, Abortion, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Suicide
shinypurplepants's review against another edition
3.0
I had not previously read the works of Anne Sexton. I wanted to check out her poetry after finishing Gladwell's Talking to Strangers, in which he mentions Sexton and her contemporaries.
I was... unnerved by Sexton's work. I knew she suffered from depressive tendencies and was considered preoccupied with death but I still did not expect how raw and powerful they would be. It's silly but I was not able to read every poem in the collection!
It begins:
Consider
a girl who keeps slipping off,
arms limp as old carrots,
into the hypnotist's trance,
into a spirit world
speaking with the gift of tongues.
She is stuck in the time machine,
suddenly two years old sucking her thumb,
as inward as a snail,
learning to talk again.
And it ends:
I was forced backward.
I was forced forward.
I was passed hand to hand
like a bowl of fruit.
Each night I am nailed into place
and forget who I am.
Daddy?
That's another kind of prison.
It's not the prince at all,
but my father
drunkeningly bends over my bed,
circling the abyss like a shark,
my father thick upon me
like some sleeping jellyfish.
What voyage is this, little girl?
This coming out of prison?
God help -
this life after death?
And the middle stanzas are just as unsettling.
I was... unnerved by Sexton's work. I knew she suffered from depressive tendencies and was considered preoccupied with death but I still did not expect how raw and powerful they would be. It's silly but I was not able to read every poem in the collection!
Spoiler
One poem that did stand out a lot was Briar Rose which I am to understand was written while she was being seen by an "avant garde" therapist that chose to try hypnotherapy on Sexton.It begins:
Consider
a girl who keeps slipping off,
arms limp as old carrots,
into the hypnotist's trance,
into a spirit world
speaking with the gift of tongues.
She is stuck in the time machine,
suddenly two years old sucking her thumb,
as inward as a snail,
learning to talk again.
And it ends:
I was forced backward.
I was forced forward.
I was passed hand to hand
like a bowl of fruit.
Each night I am nailed into place
and forget who I am.
Daddy?
That's another kind of prison.
It's not the prince at all,
but my father
drunkeningly bends over my bed,
circling the abyss like a shark,
my father thick upon me
like some sleeping jellyfish.
What voyage is this, little girl?
This coming out of prison?
God help -
this life after death?
And the middle stanzas are just as unsettling.
reevek's review against another edition
3.0
Beautiful, sad, dark. My first time reading Sexton and I felt like I got to understand her so well through her poetry and pain.
Favorite poems in this collection:
Young (pg. 46)
In Celebration Of My Uterus (125)
It Is a Spring Afternoon (132)
Jesus Cooks (195)
The Rowimg Endeth (242)
In Excelsis (265)
Favorite poems in this collection:
Young (pg. 46)
In Celebration Of My Uterus (125)
It Is a Spring Afternoon (132)
Jesus Cooks (195)
The Rowimg Endeth (242)
In Excelsis (265)
tracie_nicole's review against another edition
5.0
I love these so much I'm getting the complete poems to keep with me forever.
I love her writing style. Unique AF.
I love her writing style. Unique AF.
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