The Gold Key By Anne Sexton

Close Reading Freewrite: Do you remember? “The Gold Key” is a poem written by Anne Sexton. It has some influence of the Bluebeard fairy tale by the Grimm Brothers. The poem has several characters that seem to have read fairy tales in their childhood. There are four girls: Alice, Eleanor, Jane and Maryel; and there are three boys: Samuel, Kurt and Brian. The narrator asks the characters if they remember their childhood. It tries to give the message that even when we grow up, our childhood we should never forget. The narrator asks this with a series of rhetorical questions like: “Samuel, at twenty-two have you forgotten? Forgotten the ten P.M. dreams where the wicked king went up in smoke?” The last character that is introduced is a boy. The
According to the narrator he is looking for a door to open. The kid ends up opening a book of old tales which belong to the Grimm Brothers. This might represent that the kid is for the first time introduced to the fairy tales that in some way will transform his childhood. The narrator gives too much importance to this character. The narrator of the poem is a middle-aged witch that tells the story and is the one who asks questions. She is the one that has introduced the fairy tales and the magic worlds to all the kids. She knows that this kids will never forget those stories, even if they are very old in age. In relation to the structure of the poem it has one stanza with 48 lines. This lines have no rhyme. The poem words are very basic, it is easy to understand their meaning. Still there are some words that might have two meanings. The author wrote an Italian word “presto” that stands out from the other words. There are two questions that caught my attention which are “Are you comatose? Are you undersea?” this questions might be referring to two fairy tales which are “Sleeping Beauty” and “The Little Mermaid”. It seems that the witch is introducing some fairy tales in the