"Mercies" by Anne Sexton is a collection of poetry that delves deep into the human experience, laying bare emotions and vulnerabilities in a profoundly raw and honest way. Sexton's words are both haunting and liberating, taking readers on a journey through pain, longing, and redemption. If you're a fan of poetry that speaks to the soul and explores the complexities of life, this book is a must-read. It's a poignant and evocative collection that leaves you with a deeper understanding of the human condition.

It takes a particular mindset to fully appreciate the vagaries of Anne Sexton. But once you get the hang of this, it's a deeply meditate experience diving into her inherently chaotic and unflinchingly intimate portrayals of verse.

Confessional poetry at its finest; I have been meaning to get into Sexton's work and this collection of poems provides a great intro to her poetry.

I struggled with some of these poems, particularly the longer ones.
This was my first Anne Sexton read and I knew very little about her before reading. However I think knowing a bit about her life would have helped me enjoy these poems more.

In 'Mercies' readers are offered an important retrospective on one of the Confessional movement's most important writers. However, whilst such a collection is long overdue, the formatting on the electronic version leaves a lot to be desired, and it can be hard to dig down into the essence of Sexton's poetry because of the mess which has been made of her line breaks and, in some cases, punctuation.

There were a lot of poems collected here. As a relative newbie to Sexton this was a good place to start. However, obviously I enjoyed some much more than others. I think poetry is best enjoyed in small spurts rather than read by just turning the pages again and again. I'm also not sure I always got the meaning of these - there were a lot of references that I think just went right over my head.
She was without doubt a singular mind and her ability to cast a dark eye over everything including herself was interesting.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to Penguin Press UK and Netgalley for the arc.

I have been meaning to get into Sexton’s work for years, so when I was given the opportunity to read her work, I jumped on it! I am a huge fan of poetry and adore Sylvia Plath’s work. Since I am a fan of Plath, I heard a lot about Sexton over the years. I now understand why. Not only were they friends and in the same circles, their poetry is similar in the sense of being confessional.

Sexton goes much deeper into her mental
illness, sex, and life in general. Nothing is held back for the sake of prose. This is a collection of poems from different works, so it would be lengthy to go on about each one, but I definitely recommend for poetry lovers and people struggling with themselves. It is relieving to read someone who understands. An easy 5 star rating.

Anne Sexton poems are very personal. The introduction to this collection does highlight the life that Sexton lived and I found it very informative and helped in setting the tone for the poems and adding further information to the origin that some of these poems have clear connection too.
These poems can be tough and deal with sensitive subject matters however I found them beautifully written and really thought provoking.
A collection I would recommend to people wanting to read more classic poetry.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have always loved the poignancy and sharpness in poems by Sexton. It's amazing and again Penguin Classics always stand to expectations and exceed them. I absolutely adore this thoughtful collection. The poems are brilliant and make sense in everything

Reading this collection of poems by Anne Sexton marks my first exposure to her work and also my first reading of a book of poetry. I certainly have highlighted a lot of lines in this book that continue to haunt me. I intend to keep reading this book through 2020, two - three poems a day and then branch out into reading more of Sexton's works.

I’ve never read Sextons work before and I’m only really starting to get into poetry over the last year or two (other than Rupi Kaur and similar poets). However I am interesting in reading more poetry from classic poets.

Some of these poems were very depressing but also beautiful in their own way. Some just went straight over my head. At times this felt like a chore to read so I stopped and came back to it later.

Anne Sexton had a very difficult life (as discussed in the introduction) which can be seen in her work.

Poetry is very personal preference so while I may not have liked some of these poems/struggled with getting through this collection, I know that a lot of other people will adore this.

I didn't know anything about Sexton and don't know a huge amount about poetry. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection however and look forward to expanding my horizons further.

I've long been meaning to read Sexton because of the way she is consistently coupled with Sylvia Plath - I'm not sure though about how well they might compare. There are perhaps superficial similarities in that they both are 'confessional' poets, though that has always seemed a slightly derogatory label to me, as if women writers don't have the capacity for empathetic imagination or the ability to write beyond their own lives... They both committed suicide, of course, at relatively young ages, and both suffered from mental illness.

But there are also significant differences: Plath was well-educated and academic having won a Fulbright to Oxford, whereas Sexton didn't graduate and was an autodidact. Sexton's struggles with alcoholism perhaps move her closer to Lucia Berlin but without Berlin's verve and humour. I guess I'm saying that these kinds of literary comparisons are not necessarily helpful and serve to 'package' writers as commodities.

In any case, this book is an ideal starting point, containing as it does selections from Sexton's work from her whole life-span. I'd have to say that I far preferred her earlier writing - there's a freshness and an authenticity, even rawness, about it as she explores the deaths of her parents, her fragile mental state, the memories and loss of youth, and the struggle to live in the face all the weights of depression that draw her continually towards death.

Some of the poems explore explicitly female lives ('but I was tired of the gender of things') and Sexton certainly pushes the boundaries in writing of periods, masturbation, sex and adultery. One of the reasons comparisons with Plath do Sexton a disservice are that she's far quieter as a poet: that blazing energy and high-octane rage that makes Plath so confrontational especially in a volume like [book:Ariel|10082832] is not what we find here. Sexton is more accommodating, I feel, more forgiving, especially in her personal relationships. Her imagery doesn't shock as Plath's so frequently does, she doesn't batter us with blood.

So removing Sexton from the influence of Plath helps us appreciate her poetry on its own terms: her <i>Transformations</i> based on dark retellings of fairy tales look forward to Angela Carter and 'Briar Rose' is especially powerful. The later religious poetry was less to my personal taste and the posthumous verse sadly is a testament to a mind in freefall. But yes, as an introductory volume to Sexton and to find your feet within her work, this is very good.

Ann Sexton writes haunting heart wrenching poetry.Knowing she took her own life adds to the emotionally moving themes.Her poetry always draws me makes me think of her emotional intimate life.An excellent collection .#netgalley #penguinuk

I read some poems by Anne Sexton and wanted to know more about her works.
I got a roller-coaster of emotions, from joy to sadness to desperation.
I am happy I read her poems because there's so much richness and so much food for thought.
It's an excellent and highly emotional read that I strongly recommend.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Mercies is a new selection of poems by Anne Sexton, a twentieth century American poet known for confessional poetry and writing on controversial (at the time) subjects. The book contains poems published throughout her career and posthumously, chosen by her daughter, who is also her literary executor (who also writes an introduction giving details of Sexton's life and contemporary reception).

I hadn't read any of Sexton's poetry before, and had only a very vague awareness of her name, so this was a chance to discover a poet I didn't previously know. The subject matter of many of the poems is very distinctly her life (unsurprising given that she's known for confessional poetry) and it can touch upon intense themes (anyone looking to read it should be warned there's a lot of content about suicide, as well as mental health). I found a lot of the poems about mental health and suicide particularly raw and with some memorable lines and imagery, and there's also a selection that retell fairy tales which are good (though there's been so many subsequent poems doing similar things that they perhaps lose some impact).

A good number of the poems in the collection I found powerful, but some weren't for me, especially some of the later ones. Reading more about Sexton shows she was a troubled figure with a somewhat contentious legacy, and the book gives a chance to see into her world, and how her poems fit into wider poetic movements (you can see similarities with Plath etc).