Poetry Critique

Fairytale - Sara Bareilles

Cinderella’s on her bedroom floor
She’s got a crush on the guy at the liquor store
Cause Mr. Charming don’t come home anymore and she forgets why she came here.

Sleeping Beauty’s in a foul mood for shame she says
None for you dear prince, I’m tired today.
I’d rather sleep my whole life away than have you keep me from dreaming

I don’t care for your fairytale
You’re so worried 'bout the maiden, though you know she’s only waiting on the next best thing Snow White is doing dishes again cause what else can you do
With seven itty bitty men?
Sends them to bed and she calls up a friend, says will you meet me at midnight.


The tall blonde lets out a cry of despair says
Would have cut it myself if I knew men could climb hair I’ll have to find another tower somewhere and keep away from the windows.

I don’t care for your fairytale
You’re so worried 'bout the maiden, though you know she’s only waiting on the next best thing Once upon a time in a faraway kingdom, man made up a story
Said that I should believe him
Go and tell your white knight that he’s handsome in hindsight but
I don’t want the next best thing
So I sing and hold my head down and I break these walls 'round me
Can’t take no more of your fairytale love


I don’t care for your fairytale
You’re so worried bout the maiden, though you know she’s used to waiting spent her whole life being graded on the sanctity of patience and a dumb appreciation
The story needs some mending and a better happy ending ‘cause
I don’t want the next best thing no no
I don’t want the next best thing.


Explain briefly why you selected this poem. What about it do you find interesting?
I chose this poem because I think that Sara Bareilles has a great way of getting her feelings across through the music she writes. This is one of my favorite songs by her, and I think she is portraying a really strong and kind of cute message by using popular fairytale princesses. It's a very unique and different way of expressing emotion.

Comment on its title. How does the title fit the work?
The title "Fairytale" fits the work perfectly because the entire piece is about a "fairy tale love" that is expressed through different fairytale princesses throughout.

Comment on the author's use of poetic devices.
She really uses imagery, by describing each character and at least for me when I read this poem or hear the song I can picture the different characters in my head and picture what they're doing. For example "Cinderella's laying on her bedroom floor"...I can see in my mind Cinderella laying down thinking about something. I don't know it sounds weird, but it's totally true! She didn't really use any other poetic devices because she uses so much imagery throughout the entire poem/song.

Explain the tone of the piece. What is the tone?
She basically wrote a story through a song. I think that the way she described all of the characters and their somewhat personalities really expressed what she was trying to portray. I also really enjoy how she takes these fairy tale loves and proves that there really isn't such thing as a perfect love. By using these characters she gives the song a totally different feeling and makes it very thought provoking. The actual tone is very light and somewhat amusing but at the same time with a very serious feeling throughout it.

How Unpoetic

The topic I have chosen to write about today is the conversations I have with my friends sometimes. These conversations mostly happen with my friend Hayley. She's kind of crazy, but I guess in the end she's okay. Anyways when we have serious conversations, which isn't very often with us, we talk about things such as religion, my best friend Christie who passed away, or what the future looks like.

For example, over the weekend we went to Chicago for choir and roomed with Katie and Taylor. We all sat there for a while talking about how this year has turned out differently then we imagined it would. It was really interesting to hear about how we have all become friends with people that we usually don't hang out with and it's kind of nice hanging out in different atmospheres sometimes. Also, we talked about how people have changed a lot over the years and how annoying they have become. Yeah, it's mean, but seriously you don't understand how much people have changed! There are so many social climbers that bother me.

Although Chicago was just one example of a conversation we've had, there have been many other times. We usually talk about things such as friends, parents, school, and what we think is going to happen next year or what it is that we want to do. It's pretty cool having a friend that you can talk about important things with and then talk about the stupidest things in the world. I'm lucky to have had Hayley as a friend since the 8th grade. Although we have times that we don't get a long and fight about stupid things, in the end we will always be there for eachother.

But it's really weird for me to think about the topic of what next year at college will be like. None of my friends will be there that I've known since grade school, and I will have to make a bunch of new friends. It's weird because it's somewhat like a fresh start. A blank slate. And I really like the idea of that. Even though I'm going to miss my friends from Edina, I know that I'm going to make a bunch of new ones in college that will become lifelong friends. I'm nervous, yeah, but I think I'm mostly excited.

Well, that's all!

p.s. Clayton apologizes for being a big jerkburger today.

Some Writings I Enjoy...

What kinds of writing do you like to read?
I enjoy reading magazines, books, and random poems. I think that reading other peoples random thoughts, such as blogs, is really interesting at times too.

What kinds of writing do you like to write?
I really like to write a bunch of different things. I guess that I really like writing when I don't have to so that I can just free-write more then follow direction.

How often do you write when it is not a school assignment?
I enjoy journaling sometimes. If something really cool happens, or I'm bored it's sometimes fun to write about experiences, or just write some poems or something I guess.

What topics most intrigue you?
I don't really have a specific topic that intrigues me. I really don't like futuristic things, or things such as Lord of the Rings, I find those types of stories pretty boring.

3. When I was in kindergarten, one of the worst things happened to me that I will never forget. I was standing, waiting for the bus after school had finished standing with my friends. It was a cold day, and everything was freezing over. That's when I thought to myself 'I wonder if I licked this pole if my tongue would stick to it. The first time I licked it, my tongue stuck a little and came right off. Laughing to myself, I turned to my friend and said "hey look! My tongue almost got stuck to this pole!" Of course, when I licked it again...it stuck. And I mean REALLY stuck.

At this point in time I didn't know what to do. I started yelling for my mom, and looking around to see if anyone was coming to help. All I knew at that point was that my brother who was in fifth grade at the time was crying harder then I was because he thought that I was going to die or something. When I came to the conclusion that no one was going to help me get my tongue off of this pole, I pulled my tongue off of the pole by myself. Of course, at that exact moment just my luck, the nurse came running outside with a cup of warm water.

The whole school had seen this happen, and I couldn't have been more embarassed, and even now people still ask me "are you the girl that got her tongue stuck to a pole?" This is definatly a childhood memory that I will never forget.