by T. Howe

In Sexton's poem "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," the poetic speaker seems arbitrarily to characterize Snow White as "thirteen" (16). We are invited, with the speaker, to "say," or suppose she is this age--rather than some other age. Yet this characterization seems hypothetical; it could just have easily been any other number. However, it's not--it's thirteen. Snow White is described as being at the cusp of puberty, neither fully child nor fully woman. While Sexton suggests that Snow White's age isn't significant, she has deliberately changed the age from seven to the much older thirteen; this suggests that the age is, in fact, very significant.

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