This volume consists of reviews and essays that trace the critical reputation of Anne Sexton, and reveal the range of attitudes and judgements expressed by critics. The new studies represent an attempt to assess the importance of women's poetry and of confessional poetry. British critic Laurence Lerner examines what American confessional poetry is and what its influence on the world of contemporary poetry has been; Paul Lacey claims that Sexton's chief motivation is the making of ritual, and that her best poems are built around rites of communion, prayer, and gift-giving; Alicia Ostriker writes on anger and polarization in women's poetry; and Joyce Carol Oates writes on self-portrait in Sexton's poetry and letters. The volume concludes with reminiscences by Kathleen Spivack, Maxine Kumin, and Diana Wood Middlebrook. ISBN 0-8161-8891-2: $38.00.