ALL MY PRETTY ONES

by Anne Sexton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 16, 1962

A second collection (To Redlam and Part Way Back) of torment and reflection transposed into personal poetry reveals power and potential substance, but too often loses its impact in scrapbook reminiscence. Many of the poems explore the pain of others dying--here mostly parental portraits--and all the familiar responses, anger, indifference and celebration, appear in varying dosage. There is painful realism as well (""The Operation"") and eulogies on the most vivid of Miss Sexton's subjects--woman, as mother, lover, and child. Subsisting on meager imagery, but bolstered by strong words, and imploring emotion, the poems aim to realize their author's conception: ""This is what poems are:/with mercy/for the greedy/they are the tongue's wrangle/ the world's pottage, the rat's star."" The wrangle is often two feminine, the pottage too strong. The promise however, remains as contemporary lucidity in verse.

Pub Date: Oct. 16, 1962

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1962

Categories: NONFICTION