"Résumé" by Anne Sexton
Method Prompt

Based on her résumé, it is clear that fairy tales had a large role in Anne Sexton’s life. As a child, Sexton was not content. She was detached from everyone around her, including her own family. Thus, she hid in her room and read fairy tales. She felt that the fairy tales were her way of escaping the world she lived in. In a fairy tale, the characters could change their world and live happily ever after. Since she disliked her surroundings, she wished she could live blissfully in a fairy tale. Fairy tales were her means of escaping reality and finding comfort.

The final line of her résumé is “But poetry is my love, my postmark, my hands, my kitchen, my face.” I interpret this sentence as her no longer needing fairy tales as her comfort. As she grew up, she began writing poetry. Poetry then became her new source of escape from the world. Through writing poetry, she was releasing her innermost thoughts and emotions. Instead of wishing she lived blissfully in a fairy tale, she released her feelings through poetry. Poetry became her passion, her mark in time, and who she is.

There are a few other references to “face” in the résumé. The first is when she says she used to step on dolls faces because they resembled her. Another is when she explains her method of writing poetry. She writes down whatever comes to her freely, and does not choose her projects. She can’t give her poems “someone’s face-lifting-job.” The last reference is when she says it may take years for a poem to have its own face. Poetry possesses a face in the sense that it possesses its author. Poetry is representative of who the author is, as is a face. Thus, poems have a face because they stand for the author. They are similar to fairy tales because they are a form of escape. However, they are always much more personal and realistic than a typical, “happily ever after” fairy tale.