Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Anne Sexton's "One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes" reimagines the classic Grimm Brothers' fairy tale, infusing it with her signature blend of dark humor, surrealism, and poignant social commentary. The poem explores themes of marginalization, transformation, and the human tendency to fetishize difference and deformity, all within the framework of a fairy tale narrative.

Sexton begins by addressing the societal inclination to view those who are "somehow deficient" or "maimed" as having a "special pipeline to the mystical." This belief in the mystical qualities of those who deviate from the norm is a double-edged sword; it romanticizes their suffering while simultaneously alienating them. Parents, in their "bizarre thoughts," attribute their children's abnormalities to "bad sperm" or "evil ovary," demonstrating the human impulse to find someone or something to blame for that which is different. Yet, despite their initial horror, these parents eventually "warm to their roles" and even "admire their trophy," a transformation that speaks to society's complex relationship with abnormality. They begin to celebrate what they once feared, turning "a radish into a ruby" and finding value in what they initially saw as flawed.

The poem then shifts to the story of the three sisters: One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes. Sexton uses these characters to symbolize the way society values or devalues individuals based on their conformity to or deviation from the norm. The mother loves One-Eye and Three-Eyes because they are "God's lie," their deformities making them special in her eyes, while she despises Two-Eyes for being "as ordinary as an old man with a big belly." In this way, Sexton critiques the tendency to fetishize difference and dismiss the ordinary, suggesting that society is more interested in the spectacle of deformity than in the humanity of the individuals who bear it.

Two-Eyes, the seemingly unremarkable sister, is the protagonist of the tale. Her ordinariness makes her an outcast in her own family, forced to wear rags and eat scraps from the dog's dish. However, she possesses a quiet strength and a connection to magic that her sisters and mother do not. The old woman who appears to her in the fields grants her a secret power, a feast that appears whenever she sings to her goat. This magical intervention is a turning point in the poem, symbolizing the latent power within those who are dismissed as ordinary or unremarkable.

The climax of the story comes when the mother and sisters discover Two-Eyes' secret and kill her goat, an act of violence that represents society's attempt to suppress or destroy that which it does not understand. However, from the goat's intestines, which Two-Eyes buries, a tree with silver leaves and golden apples grows, a powerful symbol of regeneration and the enduring power of the marginalized. The tree only yields its fruit to Two-Eyes, demonstrating that true power and value lie not in the spectacle of deformity, but in the strength and resilience of the individual.

When a knight comes by and admires the tree, it is Two-Eyes who easily gives him a branch, leading to her elevation from outcast to queen. Her sisters, who once mocked and oppressed her, are reduced to beggars, and in a final twist, Two-Eyes takes them in. Here, Sexton suggests that the marginalized, when empowered, have the capacity for compassion and forgiveness that transcends the petty cruelty of those who once oppressed them.

The poem ends with Two-Eyes internalizing her sisters' neediness, allowing them to "take root in her heart" and become her "charmed cripples." This complex conclusion reflects Sexton's ambivalence about the role of the outcast in society: while the marginalized may find strength and power within themselves, they also carry the burden of their past, a burden that shapes and defines them even as they rise above it. In "One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes," Sexton critiques society's fascination with deformity and difference, while also celebrating the resilience and latent power of those who are dismissed as ordinary or unremarkable.

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