Anne Sexton Quotes - Page 10

Quotes about:

• I think of myself as writing for one person, that one perfect reader who understands and loves.

  Anne Sexton

  Writing, Thinking, Perfect

  5 Copy quote

• Poor thing.
  To die and never see Brooklyn.

  Anne Sexton

  Brooklyn, Poor, Dies

  Anne Sexton (2001). “Transformations”, p.18, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• I have a black look I do not
  like. It is a mask I try on.
  I migrate toward it and its frog
  sits on my lips and defecates.

  Anne Sexton

  Anger, Black, Trying

  Anne Sexton, “Again And Again And Again”

  7 Copy quote

• Oh sharp diamond, my mother!
  I could not count the cost
  of all your faces, your moods
  that present that I lost.
  Sweet girl, my deathbed,
  my jewel-fingered lady...

  Anne Sexton

  Girl, Mother, Sweet

  Anne Sexton, “Christmas Eve”

  4 Copy quote

• Come, my pretender, my fritter,
  my bubbler, my chicken biddy!
  Oh succulent one,
  it is but one turn in the road
  and I would be a cannibal!

  Anne Sexton

  Would Be, Eating, Chickens

  24 Copy quote

• I see myself as one would see another.
  I have been cut in two.

  Anne Sexton

  Cutting, Two, Mental Illness

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.92, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• Blind with love, my daughter
  has cried nightly for horses,
  those long-necked marchers and churners
  that she has mastered, any and all,
  reigning them in like a circus hand.

  Anne Sexton

  Daughter, Horse, Hands

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.112, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• Man
  is a bird full of mud,
  I say aloud.
  And death looks on with a casual eye
  and scratches his anus.

  Anne Sexton

  Eye, Men, Bird

  Anne Sexton (1975). “The Awful Rowing Toward God”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

  8 Copy quote

• There is joy
  in all:
  in the hair I brush each morning,
  in the Cannon towel, newly washed,
  that I rub my body with each morning.

  Anne Sexton

  Morning, Hair, Joy

  4 Copy quote

• Rejoice with the day lily for it is born for a day to live by the mailbox and glorify the roadside

  Anne Sexton

  Lilies, Born, Mailboxes

  Anne Sexton (1974). “The death notebooks”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  9 Copy quote

• Pulling off the fat diamond engagement ring,
  pulling off the elopement wedding ring,
  and holding them, clicking them
  in thumb and forefinger,
  the indent of twenty-five years,
  like a tiny rip leaving its mark.

  Anne Sexton

  Rip, Divorce, Years

  Anne Sexton (1976). “45 Mercy Street”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  4 Copy quote

• Inside many of us
  is a small old man
  who wants to get out.

  Anne Sexton

  Men, Age, Want

  Anne Sexton (2001). “Transformations”, p.17, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• stop the darkness and its amputations
  and find the real McCoy
  in the private holiness
  of my hands.

  Anne Sexton

  Real, Hands, Darkness

  Anne Sexton (1975). “The Awful Rowing Toward God”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

  4 Copy quote

• There is a good look that I wear
  like a blood clot. I have
  sewn it over my left breast.
  I have made a vocation of it.

  Anne Sexton

  Heart, Blood, Looks

  Anne Sexton, “Again And Again And Again”

  4 Copy quote

• Let there be a heaven so that man may outlive his grasses.

  Anne Sexton

  Men, Afterlife, Heaven

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.219, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• My husband sings Baa Baa black sheep and we pretend
  that all's certain and good, that the marriage won't end.

  Anne Sexton

  Marriage, Husband, Divorce

  Anne Sexton (1978). “Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  4 Copy quote

• I remember the stink of the liverwurst.
  How I was put on a platter and laid
  between the mayonnaise and the bacon.
  The rhythm of the refrigerator
  had been disturbed.

  Anne Sexton

  Mayonnaise, Remember, Eating

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.205, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  8 Copy quote

• My sleeping pill is white.
  It is a splendid pearl;
  it floats me out of myself,
  my stung skin as alien
  as a loose bolt of cloth.

  Anne Sexton

  Sleep, White, Skins

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.24, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  5 Copy quote

• the marriage twists, holds firm, a sailor's knot.

  Anne Sexton

  Marriage, Twists, Sailor

  Anne Sexton (1978). “Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  4 Copy quote

• I brush my hair,
  waiting in the pain machine for my bones to get hard,
  for the soft, soft bones that were laid apart
  and were screwed together. They will knit.
  And the other corpse, the fractured heart,
  I feed it piecemeal, little chalice. I'm good to it.

  Anne Sexton

  Pain, Heart, Hair

  Anne Sexton (1999). “Love Poems”, p.25, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  5 Copy quote

• My safe, safe psychosis is broken.
  It was hard.
  It was made of stone.
  It covered my face like a mask.
  But it has cracked.

  Anne Sexton

  Psychosis, Broken, Safe

  Anne Sexton (1978). “Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  8 Copy quote

• Of course
  the New Testament is very small.
  Its mouth opens four times
  as out-of-date as a prehistoric monster,
  yet somehow man-made.

  Anne Sexton

  Bible, Men, Monsters

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.85, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• I'll
  Vacuum up my stale hair, I'll
  pay all my neighbors' bad debts, I'll
  write a poem called Yellow and put
  my lips down to drink it up.

  Anne Sexton

  Hope, Motivation, Writing

  Anne Sexton (1978). “Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  4 Copy quote

• unless I can shake myself free of my dog, my flag,
  of my desk, my mind, I find life a bit of a drag.
  Not always, mind you. Usually I'm like my frying pan
  useful, graceful, sturdy and with no caper, no plan.

  Anne Sexton

  Dog, Boredom, Mind

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.263, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• I am tearing the feathers out of the pillows,
  waiting, waiting for Daddy to come home
  and stuff me so full of our infected child
  that I turn invisible, but married,
  at last.

  Anne Sexton

  Marriage, Children, Home

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.254, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  7 Copy quote

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