Plath's Metaphors

The Bell Jar and Its Affiliates Frequently, a writer will express the same symbols and themes in a variety of their works. This is the case with Sylvia Plath, who not only wrote a multitude of poems, but also wrote the renowned novel, The Bell Jar. Three of Plath’s poems that share similar elements to her novel are “Lorelei”, “Daddy”, and “The Applicant”. These ideas include death beckoning the characters, an unstable family unit, and sexism towards women. The poems “Lorelei”, “Daddy”, and “The Applicant” can be compared to Plath’s novel The Bell Jar, by examining the key themes and characteristics of the works.

As I did the above summary I kept asking myself the question, “So what?” and this is what came about. I think the poem is about what Laura Tohe has gone through herself. Her experience through child birth whether she has children or not. How much pain she went through to bring new life into this world. How pure and new a baby is. And the thought of adding to a generation.

Metaphors by Sylvia Plath The poem 'metaphors' by Sylvia Plath deals with strong issues of pregnancy. The poem was written when she was pregnant. She wrote about her mixed feelings and emotions. The poem itself is a metaphor.

Metonymy: a figure of speech that consists of the use of the name of one object or concept for that of another to which it is related, or of which it is a part, as “scepter” for “sovereignty,” or “elephant” for “house.” Sylvia Plath’s poem “Metaphors” is a true trickery of words. The poem consists of nine lines each containing nine syllables and, as it turns out, is more a riddle than a poem. Through visualization and metaphors, Plath introduces her state of being for what it is, pregnancy. The poems expressive yet simple title, “Metaphors”, is naturally fitting, being that is exactly what each line is a metaphor (in this case for a pregnancy).

Therefore, she hesitates to choose one dream. She compares a life to a fig tree, and the figs on the fig tree symbolize ambition, dreams or goals. Her figs are a happy home with a husband and children, a famous poet, a brilliant professor, an amazing editor and so on. Although having lots of goals, she believes that “choosing one [means] losing all the rest” (77). Therefore, she is “starving to death,” seeing the figs wither, “go black”, and “[plop] to the ground at my feet” (77). Using metaphors in a descriptive language, Plath makes the reader visualize a young woman under a fig tree with full of figs, hesitating to pick the figs. The dreams got rotten and drop to her feet. This visualization terrifies the nineteen-year old girl, who should be hopeful for her future, because she should decide on one before they all drop. Her fear becomes more severe while she performs her last work as an intern in New York City, which is to be photographed with a symbol of her career goal. She tries to hide herself not to be photographed because she fears picking only one dream among her dreams. Asked what she wants to be, she says she does not know, but soon says she wants to be a poet. Then, she bursts into tears while being photographed with a paper rose because the paper rose means, to her, her abandonment of other goals. Also, her crying depicts a symptom of

Plath uses the simple tree and flower as manifestations of desire. Personification is heavily used to transform the tree and the flower from plants to people the narrator wants to become, and they are also used to emphasize the traits the narrator desires. The tree is fruit-bearing, stable, and peaceful. The narrator is upset that she lacks the tree’s ability to bear fruit, and the fruit represents achievement, and the lack of fruit represents the narrator’s discomfort at lacking achievement. Plath writes, “Sucking up minerals and motherly love / So that each March I may gleam into leaf,” (l.3; l.4) not only showing the emphasis personification creates, but the usage of the word “I” shows how the narrator is constantly wishing to be the tree

From the beginning, Plath makes it known that this is a riddle a revelation that is put out there from the beginning. Clues begin to form what the riddle is about within the second line as Plath defines herself with visual metaphors. “Elephants” and “ponderous houses” both invoke images large and bulky things, as a pregnancy will do to a person’s body (2). She is starting to believe that being pregnant is making her look awkward, gigantic and ridiculous and that does not sound so good anymore.

The poem was written in a way that is similar to an autobiography. The narrator of the poem is telling the story from a first person perspective, mostly speaking in a non-traditional manner. The tone of the poem sounds carefree as if the narrator was having a conversation with the reader. For example “I won 't be keeping myself chaste for long, for when one husband from this world is gone Some Christian

The revelation that this might be a riddle comes forth in the first line. The narrator (which is Plath herself), writes that every line will have nine syllables made up of nine lines, the riddle, symbolizing the nine months it will take to carry a child to birth.

When a loved one is sick or in the hospital the first thought for most is to bring them flowers. However in this case flowers, especially tulips, are probably the worst thing that a loved one could bring. The poem “Tulips” by Sylvia Plath was written in the year of 1916, just after the ending of the postmodern era of literature. The poem tells the tale of a women that is admitted into the hospital after being diagnosed with a very serious illness. Plath takes readers on a journey that showcases the hardships and struggles that a patient is forced to face in their everyday lives. Throughout the poem, the speaker talks about her feelings towards having to stay in the hospital and how she feels that her independence

The poem “The Mother” written by Gwendolyn Brooks in 1945, is a poem that focuses on the immeasurable losses a woman experiences after having an abortion. The poems free verse style has a mournful tone that captures the vast emotions a mother goes through trying to cope with the choices she has made. The author writes each stanza of the poem using a different style, and point of view, with subtle metaphors to express the speaker’s deep struggle as she copes with her abortions. The poem begins with, “Abortions will not let you forget” (Brooks 1), the first line of the poem uses personification to capture your attention. The title of the poem has the reader’s mindset centered around motherhood, but the author’s expertise with the opening line, immediately shifts your view to the actual theme of the poem. In this first line the speaker is telling you directly, you will never forget having an abortion. Brooks utilizes the speaker of the poem, to convey that this mother is pleading for forgiveness from the children she chose not to have.

“My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.” Sylvia Plath was a poet in the mid-twentieth century who was best known for her dreary and depressing work. This poem, the Soliloquy of the Solipsist was one of her earlier poems being written in 1956. This piece takes the theory of solipsism, which was developed by Rene Descartes, and creates a story of living the life of a solipsist. Sylvia Plath uses imagery, enjambment, and metaphors in her poem Soliloquy of the Solipsist to express her feelings of isolation and to escape her powerlessness in daily life as a result of her new, romantic relationship.

Poems are a structure of words with multiple layers of meanings. The “Barren Woman” by Sylvia Plath describes a childless woman who sees herself as empty and bare. Plath uses specific figurative language, such as, allusion, diction, and imagery to help explain what being barren is like. The form, context, and figurative language of “Barren Woman” conveys what it is like to be barren, emotionally and physically.

Plath seems to then have a change of heart. She creates a fragile, beautiful image of her child; "All night your moth-breath / Flickers among the flat pink roses." Use of consonance in "moth-breath" and alliteration in the line "Flickers among the flat pink roses" constructs the soft sounds of the infant's breathing. It is interesting how she utilises the flower imagery which is similar to her other poem, Tulips. In Tulips, the flowers bring her back from the state of detachment, and here it is the baby's breath, soft as roses, the awakens her love for her child. The awakening of this love is expressed in the last lines of that stanza; "I wake to listen: A far sea moves in my ear."

The fight for women’s rights is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Women have won the vote, the right to obtain equal employment, and the right to pursue higher education just like men. However, the struggle still continues to solve various issues such as equal pay regardless of gender and maternity leave. Many women feel like they are fighting an uphill battle, and many women feel like they are being oppressed by the opposite gender. Sylvia Plath was one of these women who felt like she was oppressed by men and even her own father, who died early in her life. Sylvia Path turned to using imagery in her poem “Daddy” such as comparing her father and men to ghastly statues, Nazis, and even vampires; meanwhile she compares herself, and to a larger extent all women to the Jews in concentration camps. Plath’s use of imagery relays her feelings of enslavement by men expertly to the reader.