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Anne
Sexton's poem "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is very different
from the original fairy tale written by the Grimm Brothers. To start the
entire poem is filled with Sextons own interpretations of the Grimm's Snow
White. Sexton in the beginning describes Snow White as having
"cheeks as fragile as cigarette paper/arms and legs made of Limoges/lips
like Vin Du Rhône/rolling her china-blue doll eyes/open and shut." It is almost as if Snow White is a doll in
the poem. By fusing pop culture into her poem as well, Sexton is able to
make her poem more comical and relatable to today. After the dwarfs come
home and untie Snow White from the lace that she had been tied up in by her
stepmother, Sexton describes Snow White as being as full of life as soda pop.
At one point in the poem she even refers to an ace bandage when describing how
tight Snow Whites stepmother ties her up. 
Sexton
adds interesting details to parts of her poem that were not in the original story. For instance
there is a portion in the forest where Snow White encounters twenty doorways in
which twenty wolves stood in front of. Or the part where on the seventh
week Snow White comes upon the seventh mountain, which is where she finds the
dwarfs house. These obviously cannot be found in the original tale. And Sexton, by adding the fact that Snow White travels for
seven total weeks, takes away the original Snow Whites image of
timelessness. Another way Sexton adds time to her poem is in the end when
she states that Snow Whites princes comes in June.
Finally,
Sexton adds her own interpretation of happily ever after to her poem that
implies that Snow Whites has encountered the same fate as her stepmother.
She makes it seem as if it is inevitable and all women will encounter this fate
at some point in their life.
I
would have to say I prefer Anne Sexton's version of Snow White. Although
I love the Grimm's version, Sexton's makes me laugh every time I read it.
Her interpretations and commentary give it a personal touch, but also make it
more relatable. Her interesting descriptions are commendable and add to
the overall effect. Overall I find it to be more interesting and I really enjoyed reading her poem.