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

"Little doll child/ come here to Papa/ sit on my knee./ I have kisses for the back of your neck"

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 more into the reading, For example the introduction where she is getting the reader in the right frame of mind by talking about the Irish Sweepstakes, the nursemaid, milkman, charwoman, all going from rags to riches, or any other version of that. Not only was Sextons use of common culture great in th

Some common words found in the essay are:
Irish Sweepstakes, Sexton- Transformations, Briar Rose, Sexton Cinderella, Instead Sexton, Presto She's, Briar Rose/, classic tale, sleeping beauty, Anne Sexton, poems sexton,
Approximate Word count = 574
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)