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The fairy tale is a subgenre of folktales that have been part of the oral culture for centuries. These stories as we know them today have come down from the writings of Giambattista Basile, Giovanni Francesco Straparola, Charles Perrault, and the Brothers Grimm (Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm), who collected and preserved these oral stories in writing.
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Poems of this genre are rooted in classic fairy tales, featuring the elements from their fantastical world, including objects, places, myths, legends, etc.; otherworldly creatures like fairies, goblins, griffins, pixies, elves, witches, wizards, dragons, unicorns, talking animals, insects, trees, plants, flowers, etc.; well-known characters like Cinderella and the step-sisters, Snowhite and the dwarfs, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, etc., to create a similar narrative filled with adventure, whimsy, wonder, and enchantment. Like classic stories, these poems are often also situated in random, unknown, unspecified times that likely have long gone.
Alternatively, many poems rework the old tales, creating a revisionist narrative that resonates with contemporary concerns or expresses the underlying darker symbolic meanings, violence, and human experiences. Some poems also subvert the tropes of fairy tales, like a happy ending, getting a prince charming, emphasizing female beauty, the central role of marriage, damsel in distress, etc.
For instance, feminist revisionist poems give a voice to the traditional stereotypical heroines of these tales either through narratorial commentary or by changing the story or telling the stories from the perspective of neglected women while accentuating the underlying male gaze, perspective, narratorial voice or the patriarchal worldview of traditional fairy tales. Anne Sexton dedicated a poetry collection called ‘Transformations’ that retells the Brothers Grimm’s classic fairy tales from a feminist perspective.
Due to the typical too-good-to-be-true happy endings of fairy tales, phrases like ‘fairy tale ending’ are used metonymically for a constant state of happiness, which is impossible. Thus, many poems situate the fairy tales into real life, tracing the changing perspective of individuals and the role of these magical stories— from the childhood trust in the possibility of a magical happy ending to the pain and annoyance during adulthood as we realize there is no magic or happy ending in real life.
