Cover of The Awful Rowing Toward God

The Awful Rowing Toward God

by Anne Sexton · 1975

+ Want to read

Sexton's eighth collection of poetry is entitled The Awful Rowing Toward God. The title came from her meeting with a Roman Catholic priest who, although unwilling to administer last rites, told her "God is in your typewriter." This gave the poet the desire and willpower to continue living and writing. The Awful Rowing Toward God and The Death Notebooks are among her final works and both centre on the theme of dying.

Themes
feminism
Setting
20th century
Audience
adult
Length
short · 86 pages
Form
poetry

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

BuyAmazonGoogle Books

BorrowOpen LibraryA library near you

MoreCompare prices

Liked The Awful Rowing Toward God? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Awful Rowing Toward God. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. The Rain in Portugal: New Poems Billy Collins · 2016 Shares poetry, poetry drama, nonfiction
  2. Refusing Heaven Jack Gilbert · 2005 Shares poetry, poetry drama, nonfiction
  3. Picnic, Lightning Billy Collins · 1998 Shares poetry, poetry drama, nonfiction
  4. Searching for Mercy Street: My Journey Back to My Mother, Anne Sexton Linda Gray Sexton · 1994 Shares poetry, nonfiction
See more recommendations →

“People who read The Awful Rowing Toward God tend to reach for these next.”

  1. High Times & Rough Rides of a Bipolar Addict Kerry L. Barger · 2010
  2. A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far Adrienne Rich · 1981
  3. Facing the Dragon: How a Desperate Act Pulled One Addict Out of Methamphetamine Hell David Parnell, Amy Hagberg · 2010
  4. Winter Trees Sylvia Plath · 1971

“If you want more of the same, start with these.”

  1. The Book of Nightmares Galway Kinnell · 1971
  2. A Far Rockaway of the Heart Lawrence Ferlinghetti · 1997
  3. Stanyan Street & Other Sorrows Rod McKuen · 1966
  4. What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford Frank Stanford · 2015

“If it was the poetry that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. For Teenage Girls With Wild Ambitions and Trembling Hearts Clementine von Radics · 2016
  2. Seeds Planted in Concrete Bianca Sparacino
  3. Ballistics Billy Collins · 2008
  4. Book of Hours: Poems Kevin Young · 2014

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. From the Country of Eight Islands: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry · 1981
  2. Chicana Falsa Michele Serros · 1998
  3. The Alphabet Game: A bpNichol Reader B.P. Nichol · 2004
  4. The Far Side Observer Gary Larson · 1987

Report a problem