Compare And Contrast Plath And Theodore Roethke

Theodore Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan on May 25, 1908 to Otto Roethke and Helen Huebner. Along with uncle, his mother and father owned a local greenhouse, where Roethke spent a lot of his childhood days working and playing. He referred to the greenhouse as “my symbol for the whole of life, a womb, a heaven-on-earth” ( ). The greenhouse played a huge role in his poetry. Roethke implies that only after death of the self can people come to realize the true purpose of life, love. Roethke always had stored in the back of his mind “the idea that personal selves were not the focus of time on earth”( ). Therefore, people must experience the death of their selves before they can truly live.

Sylvia Plath's poems evoke the worst of subjective fallacies. Probably some of our charged reactions are symptomatic of the times and the culture; but more of them seem to stem from the always-too-easy identification between troubled poet and what might be the tone of imagery and rhythm of the poem considered. Because Plath worked so intensively in archetypal imagery (water, air, fire as bases for image patterns, for example), many of her poems could be read as either "dark" wasteland kinds of expressions, or as the reverse, as death-by-water, salvation poems--destruction implied, but also survived, phoenix-like.

Sylvia Plath’s work is marked with her trademark style, one full of enigmatic analogies and ambiguous metaphors. Sadly though, the life of Sylvia Plath was indeed shorter than anyone expected. Nevertheless, in the thirty years Plath meandered through the world, she left an everlasting impact. Remembered as one of the most dynamic and admired poets of the twentieth century, Plath cultivated a literary community unlike any predecessor. Additionally, since a sizable portion of Plath’s work was read posthumously, her suicide brought the much needed attention to physiological illnesses. Unfortunately though, Sylvia Plath will never know the perennial impact she left from her distinguished works that have touched numerous lives.

During the 1900’s, a series of new poets came into existence. These poets brought about new themes and perspectives that manipulated the minds of humans all across the world. The poets that are in our study are Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Robert Hayden. These four poets wrote detailed, intricate poems that are packed full of a slew of different themes and perspectives. These themes can be distilled and life lessons can be derived from them. Raymond A. Schroth states intelligently, “Perhaps the best way to define courage is to live it.” Anne Sexton’s poem Courage thrives off of

Sylvia Plath’s style has 3 to 5 line stanzas, many poems have short lines, and very descriptive writing and vocabulary, there are many poems with rhyme, and many use punctuation for phrasing of the poems. Many of her poems are confessional poems. Plath often tells stories in a way that readers can relate. She adds rhyme throughout her poems at the right moment and pulls the reader in. Some themes that are reoccurring are emotions, anger, relationships, and death. Her poems reflect her depression and life experiences.

American poet Sylvia Plath (October 27 1932 – February 11 1963) was one of the most influential poets of the 20th century. Her semi-autobiographical writing style pioneered the postmodernist form of poetry known commonly as ‘Confessional Poetry’, which emerged from the United State in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. The confessional poetry of the mid-twentieth century centred mainly on subject matter that was previously considered taboo in American poetry, such as mental illness and sexuality. Plath battled clinical depression for most of her adult life,

Sylvia Plath is well known for her rather obscure themes in her writing. One theme that appears in almost all of her poems is that of isolation from mankind and the world. In Plath’s case, isolation can also mean isolation from expression, from freedom, or from people. Plath’s poems “Daddy”, “Lady Lazarus”, and “Tulips” all express isolation through separate literary techniques such as metaphor, juxtaposition, and imagery

Today, we read literature from all eras, from Shakespeare to James Baldwin. Literature imbeds social, political, and ethical problems and or ideals. This is especially true in poetry where symbolism empowers the writing. When you take a look at “The Mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks, it addresses the issue of abortion. Abortion has been a hot topic for over a hundred years, for it is debated over social and ethical reasons. When we analyze this poem, it is important to draw the connections between how it is covered by media, and how the poems stands on it.

Sylvia Plath is a “confessional” who puts her own experiences in her works that were written during the eighteen century. Sylvia Plath was diagnosed with depression, but recovered when she first attempted suicide in college. In her marriage to Ted Hughes she fell back into depression, which led her to attempt suicide and again this time she died .During the twentieth century, women in American culture were treated as objects without a voice, and male dominance suppressed them. Plath uses allusion, symbolism and metaphors throughout her poems “Tulips” and “Cut” to demonstrate the theme of women in American culture.

In Sylvia Plath’s poem “Metaphors” there are several references and comparisons that are made between various images and pregnancy. Plath’s life experiences and the perception of women’s roles of the 1950’s shaped her poems and was of particular importance in this poem. As the poem progresses, the reader can infer that her attitude towards her pregnancy is not static. Through her ironic use of various metaphors, Plath is able to convey her feelings of bearing a child, and how her perception and emotions of herself change over the course of her pregnancy. Plath was an American poet, born in 1932.

Sylvia Plath’s contemporary American poem “Metaphors” displays Plath’s low self-esteem while she is going through her nine month pregnancy.

There are ultimately two ends to depression, getting better or ending it all. Sylvia Plath chose the latter, and end her life of February 11, 1963. She was born October 27, 1932, and is the daughter of Aurelia Schober and Otto Plath. Her father taught German and died when she was ten, both of these have an influence on her poetry, as seen in the poem “Daddy.” Plath published her first poem shortly after graduating from high school in 1950. In 1953 she hit a deep depression, along with her first suicide attempt. Plath’s struggle with depression is reflected upon in her poetry, this includes her poems “Daddy” and “Elms.”

Sylvia Plath was an iconic female author in the literary time period of “The Moderns”. She changed the literary basis with her book The Bell Jar. The source for her inspiration for her books was the very thing that led her to suicide. She used her to depression and pain to create something beautiful, but sinister. Sylvia Plath’s life was tragic in many aspects from her early life to her death, leaving over 230 books and poems.

As a female poet subject to 1960’s patriarchy, Plath inevitably suffered from both domestic and professional claustrophobia. Married to the successful poet, Ted Hughes, she was incessantly reminded of these restraints; her poetry, looking particularly at her ‘Collected Poems’, illustrating her forced subjugation and consequential identity loss. By considering Plath’s attitude towards marriage and domesticity in ‘The Applicant’ (1962), and their impact upon both her emotional well-being and sense of purpose in ‘Morning Song’ (1961), I intend to explore the restrictions of domesticity and its impact upon Plath’s sense of self-worth. Conversely, through my evaluation of Plath’s active role as a confessional poet, alongside her promotion of female