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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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All Poetry Heart Knows Ifs White God Thinking Poet Men Body Children Life Want Mouths Needs Writing Eye My Heart Sea Born

Famous Anne Sexton Quotes

“Here in the hospital, I say,that is not my body, not my body.I am not here for the doctorsto read like a recipe.”

Body Hospitals Recipes

Author:Anne Sexton

“Women tell time by the body. They are like clocks. They are always fastened to the earth, listening for its small animal noises.”

Body Earth Time Animal Listening Noise Clock Small Animals

Author:Anne Sexton

“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

“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

“At six I lived in a graveyard full of dolls, avoiding myself, my body, the suspect in its grotesque house.”

Body House Childhood Six Suspects Avoiding Dolls Graveyard Grotesque

Author:Anne Sexton

“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.”

Body Joy Morning Hair Brushes Cannons Towels

Author:Anne Sexton

“Loving me with my shoes off means loving my long brown legs, sweet dears, as good as spoons; and my feet, those two children let out to play naked.”

Mean Children Long Two Play Body Feet Sweet Shoes Legs Naked Brown Spoons Loving Me

Book:Love Poems

Source: Love Poems

“Love? Be it man. Be it woman. It must be a wave you want to glide in on, give your body to it, give your laugh to it, give, when the gravelly sand takes you, your tears to the land. To love another is something like prayer and can't be planned, you just fall into its arms because your belief undoes your disbelief.”

Men Want Giving Body Fall Belief Prayer Love Is Laughing Land Tears Arms Wave Your Body Sand Disbelief

Author:Anne Sexton

“God went out of me as if the sea dried up like sandpaper, as if the sun became a latrine. God went out of my fingers. They became stone. My body became a side of mutton and despair roamed the slaughterhouse.”

Ifs Body Sides Sun Sea Despair Stones Fingers Slaughterhouses Mutton Sandpaper

Book:El Asesino y otros poemas

Source: El Asesino y otros poemas

“Perhaps I am no one. True, I have a body and I cannot escape from it. I would like to fly out of my head, but that is out of the question.”

Body

Book:The Awful Rowing Toward God

Source: The Awful Rowing Toward God

“The body is a damn hard thing to kill.”

Hard Body Damn Suicidal Hard Things

Book:Love Poems

Source: Love Poems

“Oh, darling, let your body in, let it tie you in, in comfort.”

Body Comfort Your Body Ties Darling Get Well

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

About the Author

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

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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