The collection consists of retellings of fairy tales, and it’s hard not to think of something like Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber while reading it.
There’s a similar sense of subversion and darkness, though Sexton’s voice is very much her own: sharper, more abrasive, and often more openly dark and confessional, less mythical.
As with most collections, there were poems I connected with more strongly than others, but overall I found the style heady and seductive. Many of the poems are built on solid premises, drawing on both well-known fairy tales and more obscure ones. Rumpelstiltskin was excellent.
Where I struggled was not with the poems themselves, but with my response to Sexton after reading more about her biography. I initially came to her work through Sylvia Plath (Sexton wrote a well-known poem addressing Plath after her death): the two enjoyed a friendly relationship.
Learning more about Sexton as a person was confronting. She was a complicated figure, and accounts of her abuse made it difficult to react to some of her work.
That tension led me to read some thoughtful essays about how to contextualise Sexton’s poetry in light of her biography, and I’m still sitting with those questions. Transformations is one of those collections where the work is powerful and compelling, but the author’s role complicates the reading experience in a way that also feels unavoidable, especially given the subject matter and tone.
One word: layered.
Leave a Comment