Monster

by Robin Morgan

The debut poetry collection from one of feminism’s most passionate voices, with a new preface by the author

Well before Robin Morgan was known as a feminist leader, literary magazines published her as a serious poet, and in 1979 she received a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship in poetry. Monster, her first collection, originally published in 1972, contains work that will astonish, disorient, and move readers in powerful ways.

But Monster is more than just a book; it has become a phenomenon. Written at a time of political turmoil during the birth of contemporary feminism, the title poem was adopted by women as the anthem of the women’s movement; it was chanted at demonstrations and some of its lines became slogans. “Arraignment” stirred an international controversy over Ted Hughes’s influence on Sylvia Plath’s suicide—complete with lawsuits, the banning of this book, and the publication of underground, pirated feminist editions, all of which Morgan reveals in her new preface.

From her well-wrought poems in classical forms to the searing energy and poignant lyricism of the longer, later ones, Morgan’s work when it was first released spoke to women hungry for validation of their own reality—and the book sold thirty thousand copies in hardcover alone in its first six months, which was unheard of for poetry.     

Available now for the first time in years, Monster is an intense, propulsive journey deep into the heart of one of feminism’s greatest heroes.

Genres: Poetry, Feminism

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

An award-winning poet, novelist, political theorist, feminist activist, journalist, editor, and best-selling author, Robin Morgan published 21 books, including the now-classic anthologies Sisterhood Is Powerful , Sisterhood Is Global , and Sisterhood Is Forever . A leader in contemporary US feminism, she also played an influential role internationally in the women’s movement for more than 25 years.

Morgan traveled — as organizer, lecturer, and journalist — across North America and Europe and to Australia, Brazil, the Caribbean, Central America, China, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Nepal, New Zealand, Pacific Island nations, the Philippines, and South Africa. She twice (1986 and 1989) spent months in the Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, West Bank, and Gaza, reporting on the conditions of women.

Her books include the novels Dry Your Smile and The Mer-Child A Legend for Children and Other Adults ; nonfiction Going Too Far , The Word of a Woman , and The Anatomy of Freedom . Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Russian, and Sanskrit.

As founder and president of The Sisterhood Is Global Institute and co-founder and board member of The Women’s Media Center, she co-founded and served on the boards of many women’s organizations in the US and abroad. In 1990, as editor-in-chief of Ms. magazine, she relaunched the magazine as an international, award-winning, ad-free bimonthly, resigning in late 1993 to become consulting global editor. She was a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Prize for poetry and numerous other honors.

Reviews

[Eunice (nerdytalksbookblog)]

Powerful and moving.

I received an ARC from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.


As this is not my first poetry book mainly centered on feminism, this book was able to give out a whole new shade to the ever growing predicament that women face today. This poetry book was so powerful and it was really able to send its message across, loud and clear. However, her way of putting everything into verse painted a very gloomy picture of how women is viewed today, I am not going to claim that I am a hard core feminist, but her poems only showed a portion of the whole pie. I wished there was more to it, some of her poems were repetitive, but I really enjoyed the poem that pertained to Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, I have always been intrigued by the suicide of Plath and subsequently the second wife of Ted Hughes, how both women used an oven (a very peculiar way of taking your life, if I may add) to end their respective lives. Now I wanted to read Ted Hughes works and be able to see glimpse of what was happening then.

I commend how the poems were written it was hypnotic and puzzling and by the end you will literally have goosebumps.

My favorites are the following:

Satellite, Love Poem, Annunciation, Rendez-vous and Monsters."

I will definitely would like to read more from this author.

"I am not yours when you are too much mine."
"You are not mine when I am too much yours."

[James Debruicker]

I came at the whole Plath/Hughes thing in an entirely ass-backwards manner. My first exposure to Plath was via reading about how people blame Ted Hughes for her suicide.

Which means I had read chunks of "Arraignment" before I ever read any Plath, let alone any Hughes.

Needless to say, I kinda want to make a field trip to Hughes' grave to dig up his bones and smash them into powder now. The whole book manages to be at least as powerful as "Arraignment", it's howl after howl of hardcore militant feminist awesomeness.

[Lauren Honeycutt]

I first heard of “Monster” because I love Sylvia Plath, and naturally hate Ted Hughes, so I wanted to read the poem calling him out as a murderer. Once I heard this book was widely banned and out of publication, I assumed I never would. Lo and behold, I came across not one but two copies in a used bookstore, so here we are.

I read Letter to a Sister Underground and Arraignment (which I was correct in thinking I would love) over and over. And the rest of part 5 absolutely shone. I loved nearly every other poem in this section just because of their rich commentary on the feminist movement. It had some of that good old fashioned man hating that so much of modern feminism lacks…

Unfortunately though, I found many poems unintelligible, especially in the middle sections. I’m kind of attributing that to the fact that Morgan did write these in college and her early twenties so I suppose they weren’t very workshopped. But I will absolutely keep this around if only to re-read the first and fifth parts.

[lezhypatia]

Arraignment was by far the best poem of the collection. I wish that Morgan had not used colonization as a metaphor for women’s oppression… our oppression is not so unreal that white women have to steal (one might argue, colonize) the language of other oppressed groups to express our own pain (not to mention, the metaphor flattens the multidimensional experiences of WOC). As it stands, this decision interrupts the momentum throughout the entire book. Overall, disappointing.

[Charles]

As soon as I finished Death Benefits, I turned to this collection by Robin Morgan, and I liked it even better. I made a few more general comments about this author on my Death Benefits review. Good stuff and I'll be looking for more from her.

[Anne]

As a Plath obsessed poet, I was happy to snag a used copy of this hard to find book, banned by the Hughes estate for one poem in which she, rightly, accuses the patriarchal poetry community of crimes against Plath’s art and life. Sometimes the poems were more diatribe than poem, but I was lock step in line with all her radical ideas. And at the best moments, the poems were visionary and magical.

[Jana G.]

I read the feminist edition which contains the original verson of "arraignment" and an additional text explaining why publishers didn't want to publish the original version and why it is important to publish it.

[Hiba]

Why haven't I read this earlier? Just brilliant!

[The Voracious Bibliophile]

A literal firebrand of a collection. Some of the poems contained herein must be read slowly, creating as they meander down the page a new blueprint for being; others, with the rapid, rabid fervency of flames in a house burning to the ground. I savored every single syllable.

[Mia]

Interesting & powerful poetry. I particularly liked quite a few of the poems and there were some stand out lines. I just found a lot of the poems difficult to fully grasp and somewhat repetitive in the language used.

[Hannah Warren]

Honestly, what an absolute delight. Robin Morgan's poetry is so boldly feminist and risk-taking. I'm really struck by how her work insists that it's okay to be wrong sometimes--you just need to fight to be better.

[nensi]

2.5*

[Rachel Hetland]

Justice for Sylvia Plath

[jesa]

i don't remember why i got this book, but i probably picked it up in the cheap books pile at the santa cruz library (and i'm SURE i paid the requisite 25 cents for it-definitely). it's my first real foray into feminist poetry, and though it takes itself VERY seriously, there are quite a few flashes of intense brilliance that reveal a plight that still remains for a lot of women today. this isn't just feminist poetry, it's poetry about relations between a woman and a man, a woman and a society she's trying to change, a woman and her child. i might be making it sound terrible, but this is worth reading.

[amanda]

****An Advanced Reading Copy of Monster by Robin Morgan is generously provided to me via NetGalley in exchange of honest review.

I rarely read poem, let alone poetry book like this one. But it's safe to say that I enjoyed it. Sure there are more than one poems that gave me chills because of how deep and scary the lines are, but overall I gave a four shining stars to this book.

Not sure if I want to read another poetry book anytime soon, but hey, if it's good (and free) then why not? :)

[Lucy]

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a review, and really enjoyed it. The poems flow nicely from one to another and the overall arc of the book kept me locked in from the first poem. I read it once all in one sitting and then again more slowly picking my way through my favorite bits. I found the voice particularly engaging, and as poetry goes very accessible to most readers. I really like this as an exploration of sexuality, gender, and identity. I hope to sample it in future classes I teach or at the very least will recommend it to my more advanced students.

[Mira]

This little volume was, I think, supposed to be published by Penguin. They dropped it, and hence it was picked up randomly in Australia (can't remember by who).
I was a little apprehensive about reading this initially, but Morgan's poems are actually quite strong and truthful and open.

[Zack]

Morgan is an important feminist political activist. She is not, however, a poet worth reading by any stretch of the imagination. Not all feminist poetry is good poetry and this is pretty clear evidence of that.

[Rex Leonowicz]

Fucking right.

[Melissa]

A powerful collection of feminist poetry. Definitely worth the read.

[Ili]

Powerful and moving

[l]

Only giving it two stars because she managed to annoy Ted Hughes and other men. Otherwise, a white feminist mess.

[Cubierocks]

"The One That Got Away or The Woman Who Made It," "Arraignment," and "Monster"