The Awful Rowing Toward God Summary

The Awful Rowing Toward God was published in the year after Sexton's death, and in many ways it is a poetic suicide note. According to the introduction to The Complete Poems, this last book of Sexton's was inspired by something that a priest said to her when she was looking for spiritual guidance, "God is in your typewriter." Apparently, this not only kept Sexton from suicide for another year, but also led to the writing of The Awful Rowing Toward God, the poet's final effort to find meaning in life while coming to terms with death. While Sexton is obviously still concerned with many of the themes and ideas from her previous book, these last poems are generally more lucid and more cohesive as a whole. While the author certainly seems to be waving goodbye...