By Drew Lewis
Sexton makes light of the legendary purity of Snow White by dryly telling the reader that “She is unsoiled” (12). Snow White is traditionally depicted as a pure and ignorant young princess, and Sexton spends the entirety of the first stanza retelling this notion with sarcasm. She tells us earlier in the stanza that “the virgin is a lovely number” (2) but “No matter what life you lead”, Snow White is always the same: pure, ignorant, and “unsoiled”. Sexton shows us through demonstration of the impossibility of such “a lovely number” that Snow White is unreal, that her complete lack of conscience growing up (her eyes merely opened to say “Good day mama” [9] and closed to dream about “the thrust of the unicorn” [10] ) is actually superhuman – who can relate to Snow White? She is godlike in her purity, childlike in her innocence.
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