SOURCE: Sibley, Agnes. “The Heart Translated.” In May Sarton, pp. 27-66. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1972.

In the following essay, Sibley presents an overview of Sarton's poetry.

I of Love

In Encounter in April (1937), Miss Sarton's first volume of poetry, three themes appear that are dominant in all her poetic works: love is a source of wonder and delight; love inevitably brings either parting or painful disillusionment; and art is more permanently satisfying than life. Related to the last of these is what might be considered in this volume a minor theme—the desire for a perfection that is understood to be spiritual, intangible. This minor theme helps set apart the best poem in the book, a long narrative in free verse, entitled “She Shall Be Called Woman.”

This poem may owe some of its power to the fact that it reminds the reader of William Blake's “Book...