Possibilities of Cinderella
Everyone has been told or read about Cinderella. All Cinderella stories seem
to be the same for the exception of time the story is told and what Cinderella's
step mom had her do instead of going to the ball. I was getting tired of the
same old Cinderella stories that were told or read to me. Then I read Anne
Sexton's "Cinderella" (295), which intrigued me because of the story
in poem form. I thought I was going to hate the poem because it is a beaten
story that I hear way too much. By the time I was done reading, I read it over
again surprised at the fact I liked it.
The lines that most intrigued me was:
At the wedding ceremony
the two sisters came to curry favor
and the white dove pecked their eyes out.
Two hollow spots were left
like soup spoons.
This quote shocked me in a way because it is a more violent picture that is
brought to my mind than a getting even picture. I liked the lines but this form
of Cinderella I wouldn't read to my children. I also like the fact that is
wasn't a fairy godmother that showed up in the middle of now where, it was a
dove. The fact that something here on earth made Cinderella's night come true
was a really nice image. Sometimes it is nice to not have to stretch the
imagination that far. The dove is still magical, which still makes the story
fiction but for me it is easier to believe a magic dove exists than a person who
can just appears when someone needs them. Another violent line was lines 71-72
"and although the prince took an axe and broke/it open she was gone. Back
to her cinders." Personally I can't see a prince chopping done a door to
find a fair lady unless she was in trouble. Now days they would call it breaking
an entering, but I doubt they actually had a law in the story about it, plus it
was the prince.
My favorite part of the poem was the last stanza, lines 100-109.
Cinderella and the prince
lived, they say, happily ever after,
like two dolls in a museum case
never bothered by diapers or dust,
never arguing over the timing of an egg,
never telling the same story twice,
never getting a middle-aged spread,
their darling smiles pasted on for eternity.
Regular Bobbsey Twins.
That story.
That stanza was a great ending for a Cinderella story. The speaker not
knowing for sure if they do live happily ever after. They weren't bothered by
the world. It seems they didn't have children. They never grow old of each
other. That is what true love is. It was nice to see the poet didn't use any
vague words, such as love, to describe what was going on. That made the poem
more believable.
In some story, movie, or poem everyone had heard the story Cinderella. It is a
great story to tell children. For adults that still like that story like I
suggest reading Anne Sexton's "Cinderella." I wouldn't read this poem
to my children because of some of the violent pictures I get. This is an
exceptional piece of poetry. I am glad that I didn't throw this poem right out
because of the title. I would have missed out on one of the most well written
poems I have read.
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