Transformations by Anne Sexton
Sexton As Poet-Storyteller, Retelling Dark Fairytales With Modern Details And Personal
Themes
These poem-stories are a strange retelling of seventeen Grimms fairy
tales, including Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, The Twelve
Dancing Princesses, The Frog Prince, and Red Riding Hood.
Astonishingly, they are as wholly personal as Anne Sextons most intimate
poems. Her metaphoric strength has never been greater -- really funny,
among other things, a dark, dark laughter (C.K. Williams).
Personal Review: Transformations by Anne Sexton
I have Anne Sexton's complete works, and this book rises above the rest.
The fairy tale framework compels more structure and discipline from a poet
accustomed to rambling (but often brilliant) confessional observation. It is,
in my estimation, her finest work.Her take on "Snow White" refuses to
establish heroines or villains. The girl is a lovely virgin, "cheeks as fragile
as cigarette paper...lips like Vin du Rhone." The jealous queen, still
beautiful at middle age but fearing that time isn't on her side and informed

by her mirror she's no longer "the fairest of them all," tries to kill her. For
this, she is punished by torture. The twist here is that Sexton makes it
clear that some day the virgin girl will meet the queen's fate: "Meanwhile
Snow White held court,/ rolling her china-blue eyes open and shut/ and
sometimes referring to her mirror/ as women do."The lesbian implications
of "Rapunzel" are brought to the fore, and the transvestite deception of
"Little Red Riding Hood" is remarked on. Sexton crashes the dreamy
romance of Cinderella with the mundane reality of marriage. "Happily ever
after" is contrasted with "diapers...arguing...getting a middle-aged spread."
The Freudian power of mother is accented in the poet's take on "Hansel
and Gretel"; Sexton brings out dark implications of child murder and
pedophilia that the original tale merely glosses. Twenty years before
Robert Bly tackled the "Iron John" fairy tale, Sexton put her spin on it,
stressing the main character's cannibalism and outcast status. She
compares the hairy wild man to a string of deeply troubled characters from
her imagination. It is here where her poetry reaches the peak of its
intensity: "A lunatic wearing that strait jacket/ like a sleeveless sweater,
singing to the wall like Muzak.../ And if they stripped him bare/ he would
fasten his hands around your throat/ After that he would take your corpse/
and deposit his sperm in three orifices./ You know, I know,/ you'd run
away."Sexton's deep-delving into childhood stories, unearthing the very
real and plausible taboos they skirt, is refreshing. Her anachronistic use of
modern language (Muzak, for instance) is artful and effective. The best
thing about this book, however, is that so much madness and sadness is
surmised from such timeless and appealing stories. Happy endings are
left intact but with a shadow cast over them. Sexton is a poet of the dark--
with no one to save her "from the awful babble of that calling."
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