Analysis Of Mary Hughes 's Poem ' Lady Lazarus Plath '

Though out this class I learned a lot, I never really read much poetry and did not realize how much meaning poems can have. I am glad that we read so many different types and styles of poems and books. It really helped me get a well rounded understanding of poetry. My favorite unit was the collection unit. The other poems we read taught me a lot about the other topics we touched on as well. Before this class I never really gave poetry much thought, this class opened up my eyes to how important poetry really is.

Poets, Judith Wright, Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickenson all express their views on life and death, however, do so in varying manners. Through imagery, Wright and Plath both consider life’s beginnings, however, Wright considers it to be a beautiful gift, whereas Plath views birth as an empty burden. Subsequently, through structure Dickenson and Wright each acknowledge life, expressing how in some cases it is difficult, yet in other circumstances it is celebrated. Finally, through tone, Dickenson and Plath convey their views on death, yet differ in that Plath believes it is purifying and holds a sick fascination with it, while Dickenson instead holds a unique curiosity about it. Therefore, whilst each poet recognises the journey of birth,

“Once upon a time there was a wife and mother one too many times” (Godwin 39). This short story begins with the famous opening, once upon a time, which foreshadows that the story line will be similar to a fairy tale. It raises expectations for the story that all will be magical and end happily. A typical modern-day fairy tale is that of a distressed character who overcomes an obstacle, falls in love with prince charming, and they ride off into the sunset; living happily ever after never to be heard from again. Godwin however, puts an unexpected twist on “A Sorrowful Woman”. This short story is a tale about what can happen when everyday roles take over our identity. Ultimately, this short story challenges societal expectations of marriage

The things that make one human are convoluted. That’s why in a world where everyone strives for simplicity, people are often eluded by the nature of humanity. They often overlook certain aspects of a person in favor of simplicity, reducing them to a single idea which fails to encompass all the facets of an individual, which is what happens to the Henrietta Lacks’ family in Rebecca Skloots recounting of their story called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. However, this has its ramifications. Even though many feel it is simpler to dismiss the messier details of humanity in favor of cold hard facts, Skloot shows that major consequences arrive when these personal elements are overlooked.

In the poem “To Paint a Water Lily” by Ted Hughes, the speaker conveys his attitude toward nature as perplexing, complex, and deceiving. He also expresses his opinion of the artist and the difficulties brought on by him trying to paint and recreate not only the picture of a water lily and its natural scene, but also capture the intense environment that is both peaceful and full of constant activity. The author achieves this through literary techniques such as: imagery and juxtaposition.

In her poem, “Lady Lazarus,” Sylvia Plath uses dark imagery, disturbing diction, and allusions to shameful historical happenings to create a unique and morbid tone that reflects the necessity of life and death. Although the imagery and diction and allusions are all dark and dreary, it seems that the speaker’s attitude towards death is positive. The speaker longs for death, and despises the fact the she is continually raised up out of it.

Phillis Wheatley, one of America’s best writers and contributors to American literature, helped enrich our knowledge about her life through the use of imagery in her poems. Wheatley wrote many poems throughout her life. Her poems include, “On Being Brought From Africa to America”, ”To The Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth”, “ The Thoughts of the Works of Providence”, and many more.

Initially, Collins demonstrates how one can weigh a dog’s weight with his method. Concrete diction in the first stanza, such as, “ small bathroom”, “ balancing”, and “shaky” suggest the uncomfortable nature of his intimate relationship with his pet. Although Collin is unappreciated for the gritty toil determination, he praise himself to applauded that “this is the way” and raising his self-esteem by comparing how easier it is than to train his dog obesity. In addition, the negative diction used to describe Collin holding his dog to be “awkward” for him and “bewildering” for his pet. This establish he rather force love rather willing show patience. When holding a pet on scale, there is less hustle because he secures the dog’s position by carrying it. Where as when he orders the dog to stay on the weighing scale with a cookie, his dog only followed him because of the expected reward.

Phillis Wheatley was the first African American to publish a book; one that would bring her national and international fame. Known for both her youthful intellect and the ability to versify popular people and topics of the day, Wheatley gained the adoration of many. One such fan was none other than General George Washington, who praised her poetical talent after Wheatley personally sent him a heroic couplet entitled “To His Excellency General Washington”. The poem is unique because of the way Wheatley expressed her personal opinion of the Revolutionary effort. They way Wheatley portrays America, George Washington, and the Revolutionary army shows that she believes the War of Independence is a glorious, justified, and divinely ordained task.

Phillis Wheatley is a Gambian born African American poet. She was bought off of the slave trade by the Wheatley family from Boston. Her love of writing was influenced by the reassurance of the Wheatley family who taught her how to read and write. The family encouraged her poetry and helped develop her literature skills. Phillis is known for becoming the first published African American poet. Many see her as the first writer to develop a genre of African American literature. Through an analysis of Wheatley’s work we can see how her influential work tends to carry themes from the point of view of American colonists. Her work also contains a general critique of slavery and descriptions of her attitudes towards the circumstances forced upon the enslaved.

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) and Anne Sexton (1928-1974) both explored similar themes such as tone, structure, and symbolism. Many of their poems were cries for help, which resulted into metal illness, depression, and suicide. In 1958, Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath met, and much to their surprise had a few things in common. They both were fascinated with death and suicide. Both Sexton’s and Plath’s poetry are considered as confessional poetry in which they were very honest, depressed, and had suicidal or homicidal tendencies. Sylvia and Anne’s views on what happened in their life and on independence, are what nearly separates them from other confessional poets. Sexton and Plath’s poetry range over a variety of topics such as death, suicide, rage, and mourning. They both utilize a convincing use of symbolism, deep image, metaphors, and soul-searching. Plath’s “The Colossus”, “Full Fathom Five”, “Daddy”, and Sexton’s “And one for My Dame” and “All My Pretty Ones”, are very enraged and different feminist perspectives, giving different views on the relationships with a father and a husband.

How Sylvia Plath's Life is Reflected in the Poems Daddy, Morning Song, and Lady Lazarus

Wrapped in gaseous mystique, Sylvia Plath’s poetry has haunted enthusiastic readers since immediately after her death in February, 1963. Like her eyes, her words are sharp, apt tools which brand her message on the brains and hearts of her readers. With each reading, she initiates them forever into the shrouded, vestal clan of her own mind. How is the reader to interpret those singeing, singing words? Her work may be read as a lone monument, with no ties to the world she left behind. But in doing so, the reader merely grazes the surface of her rich poetics. Her poetry is largely autobiographical, particularly Ariel and The Bell Jar, and it is from this frame of mind that the reader interprets the work as a

Sylvia Plath’s poetry is well known for its deeply personal and emotional subject matter. Much of Plath’s poetry is confessional and divulges the most intimate parts of her psyche whether through metaphor or openly, without creating a persona through which to project her feelings, and through the use of intense imagery. Plath’s attempt to purge herself of the oppressive male figures in her life is one such deeply personal and fundamental theme in her poetry. In her poem, “Daddy”, which declares her hatred for her father and husband, this attempt is expressed through language, structure, and tone. (Perkins, 591)

However, the ambiguity of Hughes 's poetry may be derived not so much from a desire to obscure truthful representation, but from the inherently traumatic impact of this act of writing. In light of this, Hughes 's fragmentary syntax and the episodic construction of the Birthday Letters sequence, may well be understood as a literal manifestation of his attempt to pull together a "scattered, dispersed, or lost" series of recollections (Freeman, 30); the trauma of which constantly resists any easy assimilation into language. Usually within the discourse of psychoanalysis, it is simply the process of describing a traumatic experience, representing it within language, which forces it to be externalized, contained and thus assuaged. While Hughes certainly seeks to attain this same catharsis, through a kind of "scriptotherapy" (Henke, xxii) his poetic style simultaneously invokes the raw and uncooled processes of its own production. As John Carey writes in a review for the Sunday Times, "The language is like lava, its molten turmoils hardening into jagged shapes, still hot from the earth 's core." ("Fatal Attraction"). In order to understand Hughes 's magmatic poetry more effectively, it is useful to consider Julia Kristeva 's conception of the "signifying process" (84) as proposed in Revolution in Poetic Language (1979). Kristeva conceives of communicative acts as composed of a balance between "symbolic" and "semiotic" aspects (95, The Kristeva Reader). The "symbolic" may be