Hay's Rapunzel's Formalist Approach Prayer has always been a symbol of faith, and even in modern poetry it is still used as a desperate cry addressed to The one who is in Heaven. One of the great examples of this desperate cry would be “Rapunzel” by Sara Henderson Hay. After reading its modern version, familiarity with Grimm's fairy tale "Rapunzel" will reveal a completely new interpretation. Sara Hay chooses Rapunzel's prayer to fit within the structure of the sonnet. The Sonnet, part of a lyric genre, represents the most personal and direct way of speaking. Here, the lyric poet speaks from Rapunzel's point of view, almost singing about her sufferings, feelings and past experiences. Let us remember the first line of the sonnet: “Oh, God, let me forget the things he said.” The elegy begins in the form of prayer. This helps us understand from the first verse that the lyrical hero is suffering and desperate. Through the words “let me forget” we can hear the echo of past life, of past things, which may never return. The author (the heroine) leaves us in suspense, because she will never reveal to us “the things he said” and “the promises he made”. The repetitive phrase “leave me” reveals Rapunzel’s feelings and sets the tone of the poem. The first lines help us hear the tone of our heroine's voice and understand her suffering. Looking more at the first stanza, we can see many associations and connections between certain words and the religious motif of the prayer. The words “freeze and burn” are the extremes that help us hear the echo of “hell” (Rhetoric 102K class discussion, January 23, 2001). Likewise, the word promises in the Bible is synonymous with the word covenant (or Testament). In the fifth l...... middle of paper ...... enlightened by love, has now become one who knows: "I knew...I knew...I could have known." Looking at the last line of the sonnet, we understand its purpose. Here we see the image of many symbolic Rapunzels. The heroine looks at the past and the future and realizes that her life is only a small piece, compared to the concept of the Eternal, or the concept of the Whole. She realizes that life on earth is not eternal and that she is just a suffering traveler like many others. Hay's "Rapunzel" begins as a true worshiper and finds her fate too baffling to communicate even to her Creator. So she indulges in her own imaginings with moans so deep that only her soul can commune on that level. Prayer turns into song, song into fantasy, and in its heart, fantasy reveals a tragic reality. His only true hope is found in the heart's first cry: "Oh, my God..."