Marilyn Hacker

Selected Poems

"Marilyn Hacker's poetry passes loss through wit, and makes it sing."—Diane Middlebrook

Here is a rich collection of work from five books by one of America's most controversial poets. Marilyn Hacker's poems have been praised for their technical vituosity, forthright feminism, political acuity, and unabashed eroticism.

Included are selections from Hacker's first book, Presentation Piece (1974), the Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets and a National Book Award Winner; Separations (1976); Taking Notice (1980), which was claimed as an integral part of the burgeoning feminist and lesbian canon; Assumptions (1985), which explored the connundrums of gender, race, and identity in contemporary life; and Going Back to the River (1990), which received a Lambda Literary Award.

"Marilyn Hacker is an essential American poet. In these poems elements of tone and theater find a balance which is witty and powerful all at once; which seems inpossible but happens anyway. This is a poet of dazzling opposites. Her formal variety exists with a strong-willed vernacular; her lyric wryness with a determined narrative. These poems tell her story. They also honor the story of poetry in our time with their strength and purpose and their clear, unswerving gaze."—Eavan Boland