{"id":2793,"date":"2012-07-10T19:08:31","date_gmt":"2012-07-10T23:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/wpblog\/?p=2793"},"modified":"2012-07-27T12:01:21","modified_gmt":"2012-07-27T16:01:21","slug":"grimm-poems-encountering-anne-sextons-transformations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/grimm-poems-encountering-anne-sextons-transformations\/","title":{"rendered":"Grimm Poems: Encountering Anne Sexton’s Transformations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s little that can compare to a summer afternoon on a shady back porch\u2014seventy-seven degrees, with a large, chilled beverage and a good book of poetry in hand. With the recent bout of gorgeous weather here in Charlottesville, I soon found myself perusing the shelves of my local bookstore. I\u2019d just finished reading a ton of modernist poetry\u2014Yeats and Eliot and whatnot, so I was looking for something a little more contemporary, maybe, post sixties but not last-twenty-years contemporary. I picked a book by Anne Sexton off the shelf, first off because I wanted to read a female poet after those modernists, and because a close friend had recommended her. Upon opening Transformations<\/em>, I found the publication date\u2014 1971. Score<\/em>. And so I read.<\/p>\n

The first thing that strikes you about the edition of Transformations<\/em> that I picked up is the foreword by Kurt Vonnegut. Not only did his irreverence make me chuckle, but he makes some enlightening statements about poetry as well. Poets \u201cextend language,\u201d he says. \u201cAnne Sexton does a deeper favor for me: she domesticates my terror, examines it, and describes it, teaches it some tricks which will amuse me, then lets it gallop wild in my forest once more.\u201d I love how Vonnegut juxtaposes domesticity and terror with his typical charm. \u201cHow do I explain these poems, Not at all. I quit teaching in colleges because it seemed so criminal to explain works of art.\u201d We don\u2019t need to explain or over-think poetry, as it is fundamentally about how it makes the reader feel. You know when a poem is good because you know<\/em>, not because someone said so. However, despite his advice, I\u2019m going to try and give what little insight I\u2019ve gleaned about Sexton, from reading Transformations<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Sexton only began writing poetry as advice from a counselor. She was battling mental illness, and wrote poetry as an outlet. Clearly though, Sexton\u2019s poetry wasn\u2019t merely therapeutic. After some encouragement from friends, she began compiling and publishing her poems, and by 1967 she earned a Pulitzer. However, I was shocked to discover that Sexton lost her battle with mental illness in 1974, committing suicide at age 45. I honestly couldn\u2019t believe it, based on the poems I read. From then on I read the poetry a little differently, with a bit of inescapable heaviness.<\/p>\n

The first few poems immediately hook you, and I, in fact, finished the book on one sitting. Transformations<\/em> is Anne Sexton\u2019s retelling of various Grimm Fairytales. She starts, and continues an interesting pattern in which each poem is split two ways, an indented sort of preface, and then her retelling of the story. You\u2019ll notice the transition into storytelling mode after the indented section, from \u201cThe Twelve Dancing Princess\u2019s\u201d:<\/p>\n

The night nurse
\nwith her eyes slit like Venetian blinds,
\nshe of the tubes and the plasma,
\nlistening to the heart monitor,
\nthe death cricket bleeping,
\nshe who calls you \u201cwe\u201d
\nand keeps vigil like a ballistic missile,
\nwould understand.<\/p>\n

Once
\nThis king had twelve daughters,
\nEach more beautiful than the other.
\nThey slept together, bed by bed
\nIn a kind of girls\u2019 dormitory\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The preface always has something to do with the story, even if it is in a completely different voice. If you already don\u2019t know, this story involves twelve princesses who secretly go out dancing all night. Sexton\u2019s preface offers images of different people who might understand \u201cif you danced from midnight until six A.M.,\u201d including a \u201crunaway boy,\u201d \u201cparalytics wife,\u201d and the \u201cnight nurse,\u201d mentioned above. The juxtaposition of imagined princesses locked up in a room though they want to dance the night away and a paralyzed wife who takes her husband to a bar in order to watch other couples dance feels somewhat stretched, though clever. We see these kinds of connections in all her prefaces.<\/p>\n

Another captivating element to Sexton\u2019s poetry is her form and style. Aside from her dual-poem patter throughout the book, her poetry can be examined on a line level as well. One thing that Sexton does, and does well is metaphors. Her poems are heavily populated by simile and metaphor, which, might come off as overbearing, but her descriptors don\u2019t. Not only do they easily measure up in quantity, but in quality as well. Every metaphor was either blissfully simple or fresh, and all were uncannily appropriate. To wit:<\/p>\n

One with one eye
\nlike a great blue aggie
\nOne with two eyes,
\ncommon as pennies.
\nOne with three eyes,
\nthe third like an intern.<\/p>\n

I love the simplicity of her comparing a sole eye to a giant blue gem. Again, something rare which is why the mother favored the first daughter over the second, who had eyes as common as pennies you find on the street.<\/p>\n

Throughout Transformations<\/em>, Sexton uses form in interesting ways. \u201cRapunzel,\u201d for instance, is almost melodic, and form appropriately mirrors content here, as Rapunzel sits in her tower alone all day, singing. The following lines exemplify how Sexton\u2019s story-telling section of the poem is still somewhat prosaic in its syntax and line integrity, but musical in its meter and flow, especially when repeated.<\/p>\n

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair,
\nand thus they met and he declared his love.
\nWhat is this beast, she thought,
\nwith muscles on his arms
\nlike a bag of snakes?
\nWhat is this moss on his legs?
\nWhat prickly plant grows on his cheeks?
\nWhat is this voice as deep as a dog?
\nYet he dazzled her with his answers.
\nYet he dazzled her with his dancing stick.
\nThey lay together upon the yellowy threads,
\nswimming through them
\nlike minnows through kelp
\nand they sang out benedictions like the Pope.<\/p>\n

This section sings almost like a song when read out loud. It\u2019s as if Sexton is trying to lure in the reader as Rapunzel did her Prince.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve read retellings before, and they either flop completely or add something new by giving the author a chance to add their perspective on something that\u2019s established. Transformations<\/em> hits home because it laces fairy tales with Sexton\u2019s adept poetic skills, making it into a wonderfully nostalgic yet insightful read\u2014a version of Grimm for adults, with a Sexton twist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s little that can compare to a summer afternoon on a shady back porch\u2014seventy-seven degrees, with a large, chilled beverage and a good book of poetry in hand. With the recent bout of gorgeous weather here in Charlottesville, I soon found myself perusing the shelves of my local bookstore. I\u2019d just finished reading a ton […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":2794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,219,199],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2793"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3572,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions\/3572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}