3.26.2008

232. Snow White and the Seven Deadly Sins by R.S. Gwynn

This poem is told as a story, much like an adult telling a child a short story, with the antagonist, the hero, and the moral of the story. It is a take on the original story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, yet in this poem the dwarfs are reflective of the seven deadly sins, and Snow White is the woman who must endure their difficulties. The poem utilizes a A-B-A-B rhyme scheme, which is similar to a nursery story, and makes it easier for the child to remember it. Each stanza is four lines, which makes it of a parallel structure, and also adds to the rhythmic nature of the poem, and makes another similarity between it and a child's story.

Gwynn utilized a variety of literary techniques, but those that stood out and emphasized the poem the most were her use of allusion and personification. The entire poem is filled with biblical allusions, the most obvious being when the Father at the confessional refers her to "... texts in Romans/And Peter's First Epistle, chapter III," after she expresses dissatisfaction with her life as, essentially a servant to the devil. This chapter of The First Epistle of St. Peter involves how wives are to behave toward their husbands, and obviously the Church has no sympathy to Snow White's situation. Another allusion is to demons, as Gwynn writes that the Seven "sped to contravene the hopes of heaven,/ Sowing the neighbor's lawns with tares and thorns." The tares and thorns are alluding to the temptations that the Devil procures in daily life, and attempts to lure people astray with. The Seven Deadly Sins are personified in this poem, with Pride, Lust, Gluttony, Avarice, Envy, Sloth, and Wrath all contributing something to the misery of Snow White's life. The turning point of this poem, when Snow White begins to consider leaving behind the Seven is when she looks into the mirror and sees "How much she'd grayed and paled, and how much clearer/ Festered the bruise of Wrath beneath her eye"(Line 27-28). It is when she recognizes the abuse that she has been enduring at the hands of sin that she makes the decision to turn her life around.

I liked this poem because it had a slightly feminist air to it at the end, where Snow White turns down Prince Charming, not because she's happier where she is, but because he is a man, and she is unable to tolerate their actions. It made me laugh when Gwynn wrote: "Impeccably he spoke. His smile was glowing./ So debonair! So charming! And so Male./She took a step, reversed, and without slowing/ Beat it to St. Anne's where she took the veil"(Line 37-40). The men that Snow White had been living with had been so disgusting and horrible that she saw no reason to trust any that were more attractive or seemed nicer than others, and instead went to the convent. I felt as though the poem was saying that men were the true sinners of the world, and the only way for women to protect themselves from these sins was to hide away among other women and devote their lives to God. I do not agree with this point of view, but I did enjoy the humor with which Gwynn portrayed her speaker's perspective.

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