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Selected Poems
The steady growth of May Sarton's following and critical importance in recent years has revealed a creative writer of remarkable scope--equally at home in three literary forms: fiction, autobiography, and poetry. It is in her poetry, however, where she achieves the full extent of her revelation as artist and human. The poems in this first selection from her whole work were written over a period of forty years. They convey a wonderfully energetic alternation of mood, idea, and experience that are part of her unique creative process.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
About the author
May Sarton
134 books527 followersMay Sarton was born on May 3, 1912, in Wondelgem, Belgium, and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her first volume of poetry, Encounters in April, was published in 1937 and her first novel, The Single Hound, in 1938. An accomplished memoirist, Sarton boldly came out as a lesbian in her 1965 book Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing. Her later memoir, Journal of a Solitude, was an account of her experiences as a female artist. Sarton died in York, Maine, on July 16, 1995.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 29, 2015
This is a return to reading Sarton's poetry not very long after having completed her collected poems. The difference here is in organization and selection. The poems are organized into seven sections. The first, "The Composed Imagination", presents many of the authors poems on art, music and related topics. The second, "Love", deals in the general and the particular aspects of that huge topic. The third topic is one truly dear to Sarton's heart and life, one she dealt with in her journals, "Solitude". Here we see her struggles but also the birth of her work. The fourth subject is "Nature". It does not only deal with the beauty of her garden but with the issues of change.
The sixth section is Sarton in the world. "In a Dirty Time" gives some commentary on the history of the years she lived, the sad well-known murders of 1968 as well as less well known events of American history. In "Invocations and Mythologies", the poetry moves into India and Greece and beyond, myths and legends of the past and present. Her wide travel and experience shows throughout. The brief final section, "The Action of Therapy", seems a brief coda of her life.
There is so much to enjoy here and I think I will return to this book and approach it a section at a time. Looking perhaps to this organization to assist me with those poems I find the most difficult. And simply reveling in those I love.
Definitely recommended.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
The sixth section is Sarton in the world. "In a Dirty Time" gives some commentary on the history of the years she lived, the sad well-known murders of 1968 as well as less well known events of American history. In "Invocations and Mythologies", the poetry moves into India and Greece and beyond, myths and legends of the past and present. Her wide travel and experience shows throughout. The brief final section, "The Action of Therapy", seems a brief coda of her life.
There is so much to enjoy here and I think I will return to this book and approach it a section at a time. Looking perhaps to this organization to assist me with those poems I find the most difficult. And simply reveling in those I love.
Definitely recommended.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
January 12, 2011
I've owned this book for 20 years, and many of the poems in it have comforted, challenged and validated me along my winding journey. Seeing this book on my library shelf at home gives me the sense that all is well.
August 29, 2022
Not my usual type of poetry but i still it enjoyed it, still felt stabbed through the heart many many times, particularly…
Look out of your closed spaces to the infinite,
Look beyond hunger and the longed-for kiss
To what there is beyond your love and in it,
To the whole heavy earth and all it bears;
…
Forget your love, your little war, your ache;
Forget that haunting so mysterious face
And write for an abstracted beauty's sake.
and
It is not so much trying to keep alive
As trying to keep from blowing apart
From inner explosions every day.
and
There are times when
I think only of killing
The voracious animal
Who is my perpetual shame
and and and
There is no way out,
Only the way deeper and deeper inward.
There are no solutions,
But every word is action,
As is every silence.
and last one i swear
I came here to create a world
As strong, renewable, fertile,
As the world of nature all around me-
Learned to clear myself as I have cleared the pasture,
Learned to wait,
Learned that change is always in the making
(Inner and outer) if one can be patient,
Learned to trust myself.
Look out of your closed spaces to the infinite,
Look beyond hunger and the longed-for kiss
To what there is beyond your love and in it,
To the whole heavy earth and all it bears;
…
Forget your love, your little war, your ache;
Forget that haunting so mysterious face
And write for an abstracted beauty's sake.
and
It is not so much trying to keep alive
As trying to keep from blowing apart
From inner explosions every day.
and
There are times when
I think only of killing
The voracious animal
Who is my perpetual shame
and and and
There is no way out,
Only the way deeper and deeper inward.
There are no solutions,
But every word is action,
As is every silence.
and last one i swear
I came here to create a world
As strong, renewable, fertile,
As the world of nature all around me-
Learned to clear myself as I have cleared the pasture,
Learned to wait,
Learned that change is always in the making
(Inner and outer) if one can be patient,
Learned to trust myself.
March 26, 2015
4 STARS
(I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)
"In Selected Poems of May Sarton, a collection from her first forty years of writing, many of the author’s classic themes are on display: There are her meditations on solitude, featuring the breathtaking “Gestalt at Sixty”; there is her beautifully written tribute to literature in “My Sisters, O My Sisters”; and there is a rumination on affairs of the heart in an excerpt from the sonnet collection “A Divorce of Lovers.”(From Amazon)
I enjoyed this collection of poetry - very well-written and easy to get into. I liked that these poems are remind me of very short stories.
(I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)
"In Selected Poems of May Sarton, a collection from her first forty years of writing, many of the author’s classic themes are on display: There are her meditations on solitude, featuring the breathtaking “Gestalt at Sixty”; there is her beautifully written tribute to literature in “My Sisters, O My Sisters”; and there is a rumination on affairs of the heart in an excerpt from the sonnet collection “A Divorce of Lovers.”(From Amazon)
I enjoyed this collection of poetry - very well-written and easy to get into. I liked that these poems are remind me of very short stories.
March 31, 2014
This is the first I've read by May Sarton, though I own her Journal of a Solitude. I stumbled on this book of poetry while browsing in a local used book store. I knew nothing about her. I was drawn in by so many of the poems in this book. Underlined those moving passages, those passages where all could do was whisper yes, yes.
June 10, 2020
This was a good selection of poetry. Almost all of it was over my head, as I am not as deep a thinker as Sarton. So I probably didn't get as much out of it as I could have, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. There are a few on the topic of the civil rights movement from the '60's, which were eerily relevant given current events.
July 19, 2023
I felt often reading these poems as I feel when I read Plath. “Oh, you mean someone else feels the same way I do?” I don’t know that it makes the strong feelings any easier to bear (perhaps just a smidge) but it does make me feel less isolated in some aspects of my life.
August 21, 2008
Hilsinger and Brynes pick a wonderful selection of Sarton's poems and organize them brilliantly.
April 26, 2019
"Even a year's not long, but moments are."
--May Sarton
--May Sarton
December 4, 2022
It's strange to read poetry that is made to rhyme.
A few poems resonated but many did not. I skipped around the selections & couldn't take in many.
A few poems resonated but many did not. I skipped around the selections & couldn't take in many.
November 17, 2008
she reminds me of grammer. or gram of her. or something like cyclamen.
October 19, 2022
3 1/2 stars
April 24, 2016
Love her work. A varied and expansive collection.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews