Anne Sexton Transformations

             The reason that I and about everyone else really enjoy and relate to this book of poems by Sexton is because all the poems are centered on classic fairytales we all know. This reason and the fact that all of the poems are beautifully structured and wonderfully personal, make these poems a joy to read. I believe that there are two main things that stand out to me after reading, one: how she incorporates her personal life into the poems and two: how she uses shocking words and phrases to break away from the norm of the fairytale.
             I believe that in many of these poems Sexton is talking or venting about her personal trials and tribulations growing up, whether directly or indirectly. This is never more obvious than in her version of Sleeping Beauty, Briar Rose. This particular poem starts off as many others do with its deceptively rhythmic lines that force the reader to go into the world that Sexton is describing, but then a disturbing couple of lines grab my attention,
             "Little doll child/ come here to Papa/ sit on my knee./ I have kisses for the back of your neck"
             These lines look innocent enough by themselves, but the longer you read into the poem you see that the theme is circles around the father and something sexual, for example:
             "He kissed Briar Rose/ and she woke up crying:/ Daddy! Daddy!/ Presto! She's out of prison!/ She married the prince and all went well/ except for the fear-/ the fear of sleep."'
             I believe that Sexton is trying to get the reader to see that there is much more than what they see on the surface, that sleeping beauty is being abused by her father, and maybe that is what happened to Sexton as well.
             Cinderella is another poem that caught my attention for many reasons. First, I thought it was great the way that Sexton used the classic story line yet inserted many things about our current culture so that the reader invested a little mor
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Anne Sexton Transformations. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 11:52, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/97375.html