When Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath, and Gwendolyn Brooks began to write poetry during the 1940s and 1950s, each had to wonder whether she could be taken seriously as a poet while speaking in a woman's voice. This book title, the last line of one of Sexton's early poems, calls attention to how resourcefully the "I-You" relation had to be staged in order for this question to have an affirmative answer. Whereas Rich tried at first to speak...