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Anne Sexton

Anne Sexton Quotes

Poet

Anne Sexton was an American poet known for her confessional and autobiographical poetry. Her works delved deeply into personal pain, family relationships, and social issues, profoundly influencing 20th-century poetry.

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Famous Anne Sexton Quotes

“When the cow gives blood and the Christ is born we must all eat sacrifices. We must all eat beautiful women.”

Giving God Beautiful Jesus Christ Born Sacrifice Blood Jesus Christ Christmas Cows Beautiful Women Giving Blood

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“The silence is death. It comes each day with its shock to sit on my shoulder, a white bird, and peck at the black eyes and the vibrating red muscle of my mouth.”

Eye Black White Silence Bird Mouths Red Shoulders Muscles Each Day Shock Silence Is Black Eyes White Birds

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“My objects dream and wear new costumes, compelled to, it seems, by all the words in my hands and the sea that bangs in my throat.”

Dream Hands Seems Sea Objects Throat Costumes Compelled Bangs

Book:The Awful Rowing Toward God

Source: The Awful Rowing Toward God

“The family story tells, and it was told true, of my great-grandfather who begat eight genius children and bought twelve almost new grand pianos. He left a considerable estate when he died.”

Children Stories Left Genius Died Eight Piano Twelve Grandfather Estates Great Grandfather

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“If you meet a cross-eyed person you must plunge into the grass, alongside the chilly ants, fish through the green fingernails and come up with the four-leaf clover.”

Ifs Persons Four Magic Crosses Green Fishes Come Up Grass Leafs Ants Plunge Fingernails Clovers Chilly Four Leaf Clover

Book:The Awful Rowing Toward God

Source: The Awful Rowing Toward God

“I, in my brand new body, which was not a woman's yet, told the stars my questions and thought God could really see the heat and the painted light, elbows, knees, dreams, goodnight.”

Dream Body Light Stars Youth Brands Knees Heat Elbows Brand New

Book:Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters

Source: Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters

“Watch out for love (unless it is true, and every part of you says yes including the toes), it will wrap you up like a mummy, and your scream won't be heard and none of your running will run.”

Running Emotion Watches Heard Including Scream Toes Caution Wraps Mummy

Author:Anne Sexton

“But even in a telephone booth evil can seep out of the receiver and we must cover it with a mattress, and then tear it from its roots and bury it, bury it.”

Evil Tears Roots Telephones Receiver Mattresses

Book:The Awful Rowing Toward God

Source: The Awful Rowing Toward God

“The Saints come, as human as a mouth, with a bag of God in their backs, like a hunchback, they come, they come marching in.”

Humans Mouths Saint Bags

Author:Anne Sexton

“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.”

Long Hands Daughter Horse Blind My Daughter Cried Circus Love My Daughter

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“Frog has no nerves. Frog is as old as a cockroach. Frog is my father's genitals. Frog is a malformed doorknob. Frog is a soft bag of green.”

Father Green Bags Nerves Frogs Cockroaches

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“There is an animal inside me, clutching fast to my heart, a huge crab.”

Heart Animal Huge My Heart Crabs

Book:The Awful Rowing Toward God

Source: The Awful Rowing Toward God

“The fish are naked. The fish are always awake. They are the color of old spoons and caramels.”

Color Fishes Naked Awake Spoons Caramel

Author:Anne Sexton

“I leave you, home, when I'm ripped from the doorstep by commerce or fate. Then I submit to the awful subway of the world.”

World Home Fate Security Awful Submit Commerce Subway Ripped Doorstep

Book:Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

Source: Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

“Home is my Bethlehem, my succoring shelter, my mental hospital, my wife, my dam, my husband, my sir, my womb, my skull.”

Home Wife Husband My Wife My Husband Hospitals Shelter Nurture Womb Skulls Dams Bethlehem

Book:Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

Source: Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

“think of innocent Icarus who is doing quite well: larger than a sail, over the fog and the blast of the plushy ocean, he goes. Admire his wings!”

Thinking Wells Ocean Wings Mythology Innocent Admire Sail Fog Blast Icarus

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“I will be steel! I will build a steel bridge over my need! I will build a bomb shelter over my heart! But my future is a secret. It is as shy as a mole.”

Needs Heart Secret Strength My Heart Bridges Bombs Shy Resolve Shelter Steel Stoicism My Future Moles Bomb Shelters

Book:Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

Source: Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

“The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars. Oh starry starry night! This is how I want to die.”

Want Night Dies Stars Towns Silent Eleven Wanting To Die I Want To Die Starry Night

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“The stars are pears that no one can reach, even for a wedding. Perhaps for a death.”

Book:The Awful Rowing Toward God

Source: The Awful Rowing Toward God

“To die whole, riddled with nothing but desire for it, is like breakfast after love.”

Whole Desire Dies Longing Satisfaction Breakfast

Book:Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

Source: Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

“Once I was a couple. I was my own king and queen with cheese and bread and rosé on the rocks of Rockport.”

Self My Own Rocks Couple Kings Bread Queens Cheese Kings And Queens

Book:El Asesino y otros poemas

Source: El Asesino y otros poemas

“I am torn in two but I will conquer myself.”

Two Self Conquer Torn

Book:The Awful Rowing Toward God

Source: The Awful Rowing Toward God

“When someone kisses someone or flushes the toilet it is my other who sits in a ball and cries. My other beats a tin drum in my heart. My other hangs up laundry as I try to sleep. My other cries and cries and cries when I put on a cocktail dress.”

Trying Heart Self Sleep Cry My Heart Kissing Beats Balls Dresses Toilets Cocktails Laundry Tin Hang Ups Cocktail Dresses

Author:Anne Sexton

“I sit at my desk each night with no place to go, opening the wrinkled maps of Milwaukee and Buffalo, the whole U.S., its cemeteries, its arbitrary time zones, through routes like small veins, capitals like small stones.”

Whole Night United States Stones Opening Zone Maps Desks Routes Veins Arbitrary Cemetery Places To Go Buffalo Time Zones Milwaukee

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“We are America. We are the coffin fillers. We are the grocers of death. We pack them in crates like cauliflowers.”

America United States Packs Coffins Grocers Fillers Cauliflower

Author:Anne Sexton

“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.”

Trying Looks Black Anger Lips Mask Frogs Migrate

Author:Anne Sexton

“Despite my asbestos gloves, the cough is filling me with black, and a red powder seeps through my veins.”

Black Fire Red Despite Burning Veins Filling Gloves Powder Asbestos

Author:Anne Sexton

“The day of fire is coming, the thrush will fly ablaze like a little sky rocket.”

Littles Fire Sky Rockets Thrush

Book:The death notebooks

Source: The death notebooks

“Father, you died once, salted down at fifty-nine, packed down like a big snow angel, wasn't that enough?”

Enough Bigs Father Friends Angel Died Nine Snow Fifty Snow Angel

Author:Anne Sexton

“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!”

Would Be Turns Eating Chickens Cannibal Pretender Succulents Turns In The Road

Author:Anne Sexton

“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.”

Remember Eating Rhythm Disturbed Stink Refrigerators Mayonnaise

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“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.”

Sleep White Skins Aliens Pearls Floats Pills Splendid Bolts Sleeping Pills

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“What a lay me down this is with two pink, two orange, two green, two white goodnights.”

Two Sleep White Green Lays Medicine Orange

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“I can only sign over everything, the house, the dog, the ladders, the jewels, the soul, the family tree, the mailbox. Then I can sleep. Maybe.”

I Can Soul House Sleep Tree Dog Jewels Ladders Mailboxes

Author:Anne Sexton

“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.”

Heart Littles Hard Pain Together Waiting Hair Machines Bones Brushes Corpses Chalice

Book:Love Poems

Source: Love Poems

“Thumbs grow into my throat. I wear slaps like a spot of rouge.”

Grows Spots Throat Assault Thumbs Slap Rouge

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“There is hope. There is hope everywhere. Today God give milk and I have the pail.”

Giving Today Hope Snow Milk There Is Hope

Book:The Awful Rowing Toward God

Source: The Awful Rowing Toward God

“When they turn the sun on again I'll plant children under it, I'll light up my soul with a match and let it sing.”

Children Soul Light Joy Turns Hope Sun Plant My Soul Light Up

Book:Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

Source: Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

“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.”

Writing Joy Motivation Hope Pay Hair Drink Lips Debt Neighbor Yellow Vacuums Stale

Book:Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

Source: Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

“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.”

Mind I Can Bits Plans Dog Boredom Shakes Contentment Flags Drag Desks My Dog Sturdy Frying Frying Pans Capers

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“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.”

Children Home Lasts Turns Stuff Waiting Marriage Married Abuse Invisible Coming Home Child Abuse Daddy Feathers Pillow

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

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

Ends Certain Black Marriage Husband Divorce My Husband Sheep Pretense Black Sheep

Book:Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

Source: Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

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

Marriage Firm Longevity Twists Sailor Knots

Book:Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

Source: Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

“And thus Snow White became the prince's bride. The wicked queen was invited to the wedding feast and when she arrived there were red-hot iron shoes, in the manner of red-hot roller skates, clamped upon her feet.”

White Marriage Feet Red Hot Shoes Snow Queens Wicked Iron Invited Brides Skates Snow White Red Hot

Book:Transformations

Source: Transformations

“you see, we live in a cold climate and are not permitted to kiss on the street so I made up a song that wasn't true. I made up a song called Marriage.”

Made Song Marriage Streets Cold Kissing Climate Cold Climate

Book:Love Poems

Source: Love Poems

“You cutting the lawn, fixing the machines, all this leprous day and then more vodka, more soda and the pond forgiving our bodies, the pond sucking out the throb.”

Body Cutting Machines Forgiving Lawns Fixing Ponds Soda Vodka

Book:The death notebooks

Source: The death notebooks

“The sky breaks. It sags and breathes upon my face. in the presence of mine enemies, mine enemies The world is full of enemies. There is no safe place.”

World Faces Enemy Break Sky Mines Safe Breathe Safe Places

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“bike downtown, stick out tongues at the Catholics. Or form a Piss Club where we all go in the bushes and peek at each other's sex.”

Form Games Sex Childhood Catholic Sticks Clubs Tongue Bike Downtown

Book:Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

Source: Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

“Why are all these dolls falling out of the sky? Was there a father? Or have the planets cut holes in their nets and let our childhood out, or are we the dolls themselves, born but never fed?”

Fall Father Born Cutting Sky Childhood Planets Our Children Holes Feds Dolls

Book:45 Mercy Street

Source: 45 Mercy Street

“Oh thumb, I want a drink it is dark, where are the big people, when will I get there...?”

People Want Bigs Dark Childhood Drink Thumbs

Book:The death notebooks

Source: The death notebooks

About the Author

Born: November 9, 1928
Died: October 4, 1974
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 369

Related Topics

Poetry Heart Knows Ifs White God Thinking Poet Men Body

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Selected Poems of Anne SextonRelated source material

The Awful Rowing Toward GodRelated source material

Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in LettersRelated source material

Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three storiesRelated source material

TransformationsRelated source material

45 Mercy StreetRelated source material

Love PoemsRelated source material

The death notebooksRelated source material

Selected poemsRelated source material

Anne Sexton: A Self Portrait in LettersRelated source material

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