The Poetry Of Sylvia Plath

Saying Sylvia Plath was a troubled woman would be an understatement. She was a dark poet, who attempted suicide many times, was hospitalized in a mental institution, was divorced with two children, and wrote confessional poems about fetuses, reflection, duality, and a female perspective on life. Putting her head in an oven and suffocating was probably the happiest moment in her life, considering she had wanted to die since her early twenties. However, one thing that was somewhat consistent throughout her depressing poetry would be the theme of the female perspective. The poems selected for analysis and comparison are, ”A Life”(1960),”You’re”(1960), “Mirror” (1961), “The Courage of Shutting-Up” (1962) and

These lines are frightening, but unfortunately real. Plath tells us that she has married someone exactly like her father, a man who has a “my struggle” look, a German look. The third line above seems to mean that her husband, who was poet Ted Hughes, cheated on her, in turn abandoning her. But she still said “I do” and agreed to be with him.

Sylvia Plath is an American poet, novelist and short story writer who lived in London, United Kingdom. She is considered an important poet of her generation. Her work is very personal and towards the end of her life she often wrote about death. She usually used confessional genre to write her poetry. She is Best-known for her two published collections: The Colossus and Other Poetrys and Ariel. She also wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar in 1963 published shortly before her death. The Bell Jar was based on her own life and personal experiences. The Thin People is one of her best poetry which was written in 1957 and was also known as "The Moon Was a Fat Woman Once". A lot of interpretations were made toward this poetry. Some

In 1963 on a cold winter day of February 11th, Sylvia Plath ended her life. She had plugged up her kitchen, sealing up the cracks in doors and windows before she was found with her head inside of her gas oven inhaling the dangerous fumes. She was only thirty years old, a young woman with two small children and an estranged ex-husband. A tragic detail of her life is that this is the second time she had tried to commit suicide. Plagued with mental illness her whole life, which is evident within her poetry. She would write gripping, honest portrayals of mental illnesses. Especially within Ariel, the last poetry book she wrote, right before she took her life. Although it’s hard to find a proper diagnosis for Sylvia Plath, it is almost definite that she at least had clinical depression with her numerous suicide attempts and stays in mental hospitals undergoing electroshock therapy. Sylvia Plath is now famously known for her writing and the more tragic parts of her life. Such as the separation from her husband, Ted Hughes, mental illness, etc… Plath may not have intended for her life and art to become inspiration to many people but that has become the end result. Sylvia Plath writing shows symptoms of her suicidal thoughts. To study specific moments in Sylvia Plath’s life, it can be connected to certain writing’s of her’s, such as “Daddy”, The Bell Jar, and “Lady Lazarus”.

Sylvia Plath was an American Poet who was renowned for poetry mostly in the United States. She, however lived a difficult and depressing life which led to a few futile suicide attempts, but ultimately led to a successful suicide attempt leaving her children to live on without a mother. This end result was due to a multitude of issues in her life from Sylvia’s sanity. She wasn’t the most stable child. Her marriage also played a role in her suicide. Her successes weren’t acclaimed until after her death, when a majority of her work was released. There were two major aspects to her life: her poetry and her sanity. These three combined make up a majority of Sylvia’s life.

Plath was a famous American poet; often described as a feminist poet. She was born in Boston, October 27, 1932 and died on February 11, 1963. She had two children but disappeared on them at a young age as she closed the rooms between herself and her children, left them some bread and milk and trapped her head in the oven whilst the gas was turned on. She committed suicide at the age of 30. Sylvia used a wide variety of themes in her poems to express the thoughts that she constantly felt, to express her feelings that she felt no other person could, to tell stories which she went through and poured out all her emotions to let us know she could feel. I will be discussing death / depression as my first theme and victimization / patriarchy as my second: those being apart with her themes, along with her poems.

Sylvia Plath had a past that represents the type of hell that is unimaginable by a normal mind. Her birth by the seed of her educated parents was on October 27th, 1932. Her relationship with her father never fully developed as he died when she was only eight years old from a complication of diabetes. This death confused her psyche and destroyed her innocence at a young age, further creating a precedent of insanity and depression. Her creativity and ambition for success started with her daily journal that she kept from the age of eleven. As she grew to her teenage she posted her writings in regional magazines and newspapers which

Sylvia Plath was a very interesting woman she was born in Boston, Massachusetts who did have some personal problems she just couldn’t deal with in her everyday life. Sylvia Plath did end up taking her own life when she was only thirty at the time and she left behind an absolute artistic legacy. Plath’s life was intertwined into her poetry, ironically critics weren’t allowed to offer insights into her agony and her work. She was married to Ted Hughes, he became the poet laureate of England and he used copyright control over her works to refuse the biographers permission to quote his wife’s works when her point of view disagreed with his own. Plath was known to be neurotic and very moody that no man could put up with her, the reality isn’t that simple. Plath had a very long history of mental imbalance, three years prior to her actual suicide she previously attempted it by, “leaving a note saying that she had gone for a walk, Sylvia crawled under her house and swallowed a large number of sleeping pills.” (Hall 6). She committed her actual suicide during a horrible winter in England, she was left alone with her two young children while her husband was living with another woman, Assia Wevill. Wevill did give birth to a child with Hughes being the father, and oddly enough Assia killed herself in the same manner as Plath did. Except the difference is that Plath let her two young children live, Assia killed her only child

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

American poet Sylvia Plath once stated “eternity bores me, I never wanted it.” This quote, from her poem, “Years,” expressed that she did not want to live forever. It even suggested a foreshadowing of her suicide in 1963. This quote is also from one of her many poems, which were greatly influenced by her life. To learn how Plath’s life affected her writing, researchers studied main topics on her life and her works, including her early life, career, and literary works.

“Why can’t I try on different lives, like dresses, to see which one fits me best and is most becoming?” Sylvia Plath once asked in The Journals of Sylvia Plath (Plath 38). Any reader of Sylvia Plath can instantly recognize Plath’s dislike for her life and all that comes with it. Plath grew up with the realities of death in the forefront because of her father’s passing at a young age and her struggles with at least one mental illness. Much like her characters in her many works, Sylvia Plath struggled from mental illnesses, such as depression and, possibly, anxiety. Sylvia Plath is famously known for committing suicide and the “Sylvia Plath Effect”, the term coined by James Kaufman, PhD in 2001. The Sylvia Plath Effect considers the possibility that creative minds, such as writers, poets and artists can be more susceptible to mental illnesses. Though plenty of studies have not found a causal link, popular psychology has come to continue the stereotype that poets are generally depressed or anxious. While Plath is ‘famous’ in a general sense for this more commonly known information, her literary work published throughout her life and posthumously is arguably more impressive.

Some of the dark negative emotions Sylvia Plath shares in this poem can make anyone have sympathy on her feelings. Especially, when she writes,

Sylvia Plath is one of the greatest poets of all time- the queen of confessional poetry. Her writing is thick with figurative language that cannot be interpreted only one way. Sylvia Plath herself was complicated, and she struggled with her own personal hardships up until the day she took her own life. Plath’s father passed when she was only eight, and she struggled with his absence not only though the rest of her childhood but also into adult hood. Many critics believe her famous poems, such as The Colossus and Daddy, were confessional poems Sylvia wrote about her father. Although there are many ties within her poetry to her real father, her writing cannot only be interpreted this way. Sylvia had many demons she likely tried to tackle or even understand through her writing- her pain channeling through the speaker. The Colossus, a poem widely believed to stem from her own experiences with death and depression, is a beautiful poem rich with imagery that exposes the pain of living forever in the shadows.

In the early 20th century, the Modernist philosophical movement dominated literature. Despite the maturity of the topics the world faced during the time, literature erred on the conservative side and avoided personal issues such as depression, sexuality, and trauma. In the 1950’s, however, Sylvia Plath emerged to spearhead a new era of writing in the form of Confessional poetry. Plagued with depression, suicidal tendencies, and trauma tied to her father’s death, Plath explored these taboo themes in her poetry. Alongside a few other influential writers of the period, Plath’s intense and intimate poems hailed the start of a revolutionary literature movement (“A Brief Guide to Confessional Poetry”). Death, victimization, and a negative father-complex were the leading themes in Plath’s life, and inspired much of her work, including the poems “The Colossus,” and “Daddy.”

Sylvia Plath's poetry roots from her harsh life long battle with heart break, death, and depression. It is clear by her work, that life was a daily struggle for this poet. In the research of her poetry, i found one poem in particular that really interested me. My main focus was the poem "Mirror." The narrator of this poem is a wall mirror. At first glance, the mirror appears to be human, based off of its qualities and descriptions. The mirror has the ability to recognize things, such as the small detailed features of the room it is hung in, and the woman that so often looks into it. Such as line 7-8, which says, "It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long. I think it is part of my heart." The mirror observes the woman as she struggles with the reality of aging. Her skin being "pink with speckles," most likely a woman with a fair complexion and freckles, or "speckles."