Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Anne Sexton’s "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" is a dark, modern retelling of the classic fairy tale, transformed into a meditation on the loss of freedom, the inevitability of societal constraints, and the tragic consequences of desire. Sexton, known for her confessional style, uses this poem to explore themes of repression, escapism, and the bitter end of fantasy. The poem is layered with irony and cultural references, grounding the fantastical elements of the original tale in the harsh realities of contemporary life.

The poem opens not with the princesses but with a series of characters who live on the fringes of society—the "runaway boy," the "paralytic's wife," the "passengers from Boston to Paris," the "amnesiac," the "drunken poet," the "insomniac," and the "night nurse." Each of these characters embodies a kind of dance with the night, a nocturnal existence that parallels the secret life of the twelve princesses. Sexton draws connections between these modern figures and the princesses’ nocturnal escapades, suggesting that the need to escape, to seek solace or meaning in the night, is a universal human experience. These figures "understand" the princesses' nightly dance because they, too, engage in their own forms of escape or rebellion against the constraints of the day.

Sexton’s portrayal of the twelve dancing princesses is imbued with a sense of melancholy and inevitability. The fairy tale’s central motif—the worn-out shoes—becomes a symbol of the destructive cycle of desire and escape. The princesses' nightly forays into their enchanted world, where they dance until their shoes are "worn down to a laugh," are acts of defiance against the rigid expectations of their father, the king. Yet these acts of rebellion are tinged with futility, as each morning they must return to their stifling, controlled existence. The imagery of the shoes being "as worn as an old jockstrap" adds a layer of grittiness, stripping away any romanticism from their nightly escapes and grounding the tale in a more visceral reality.

The soldier, who uncovers the princesses' secret, is depicted with a kind of ruthless determination. He is a figure of order and authority, his "eyes fiery / like blood in a wound," his "purpose brutal / as if facing a battle." Unlike the princes who row the princesses across the enchanted lake, the soldier is not enchanted by the night. His role is to put an end to it, to restore order by exposing the truth. The soldier’s actions bring the princesses' secret world crashing down, ending their nightly freedom. The metaphor of the princesses being "torn from / their night life like a baby from its pacifier" captures the violent disruption of their dreams and desires, leaving them "sagged like old sweatshirts," stripped of their vitality and spirit.

Sexton’s retelling does not allow for a happy ending. The princesses, once vibrant and rebellious, are now resigned to their fates. The soldier, having won the right to choose one of them as his bride, selects the eldest—a choice that seems to emphasize the inevitability of age and decay. The image of the princesses "avert[ing] their eyes" at the wedding, sagging "like old sweatshirts," underscores the sense of defeat and disillusionment. Their once-enchanted world, where they danced with "their Lucifer kicking," is gone forever, replaced by the stark realities of adulthood and conformity.

In this poem, Sexton explores the tension between desire and duty, between the need for escape and the inevitability of societal constraints. The princesses’ nightly dances are acts of defiance, but they are also deeply tragic, as they are ultimately unsustainable. The poem suggests that the pursuit of desire, while intoxicating, can lead to a loss of innocence and a confrontation with harsh realities. The ending, with its tone of resignation and loss, reflects Sexton’s broader themes of disillusionment and the impossibility of maintaining the fantasies that sustain us in the face of life's inevitable demands.

Sexton’s "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" is a powerful reinterpretation of a classic tale, transforming it into a modern allegory about the costs of desire, the repression of individuality, and the painful transition from fantasy to reality. The poem’s rich imagery and dark humor create a narrative that is both timeless and deeply relevant, capturing the complexities of human experience in a way that is both haunting and deeply resonant.

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