Sylvia Plath

1. Sylvia Plath 1932- 1963

2. Early Life • Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 27, 1932. • Her parents Otto and Auriela, believed in hard work and were committed to educating Plath. • Plaths father died when she was eight years old. After that Plath declared: “I’ll never speak to God again”.

3. The Teenage Years… • A gifted and troubled poet, known for the confessional style of her work. Her interest in writing emerged at an early age, and she started out by keeping a journal. • After publishing a number of works, Plath won a scholarship to Smith College in 1950. • While she was a student, Sylvia Plath spent time in New York City during the summer of 1953 working for Mademoiselle magazine as a guest editor. • Soon after, at the age of 20, Plath tried to kill herself by taking sleeping pills. She eventually recovered, having received treatment during a stay in a mental health facility. Plath returned to Smith and finished her degree in 1955.

4. Relationship and Published Poetry • Plath earned a full scholarship to Cambridge University in England. • While studying at the university's Newnham College, she met the poet Ted Hughes. They married him in 1956 and had a very stormy relationship. • Plath spent time with other poets such as Robert Lowell and Ann Sexton. She taught English in College. • She was seen as a rising poetic star and her first collection of poetry, The Colossus, published in England in 1960. That same year, she gave birth to her first child, Freida and two years later, Plath had a second child, Nicholas. Unfortunately, the couple's marriage was falling apart.

5. Death • Hughes left Plath for another woman in 1963. As a result she fell into a deep depression. For the six months after this separation, Plath wrote 61 poems. ¼ of her overall work. • It was at this time she wrote The Bell Jar which is based on her life and deals with a young woman’s break down. She also created the poems that would make up the collection Ariel (1965), which was released after her death. Sylvia Plath committed suicide on February 11, 1963. • There is a lot of ambiguity leading up to her death. Plath took care to make provisions for her children and wrote a note to her children’s nurse to call the doctor. • Plath ended her life by placing a white towel inside her oven and laying her head on it. She asphyxiated herself. • She died at the age of 30.

7. Cultural Context • Plath was born into a male dominated world. Her father ruled the family and Plath grew up wanting to be a perfect American girl. • A woman in the 1950’s aspired to be a wife, a homemaker and not to be a professional or have a career. • There was a tolerance of male promiscuity but girls were expected to be modest and virginal. • Not to marry= “Unfeminine” • Plath struggled to escape this ideal perfection

8. Quiz • Where was Sylvia Plath born? • What was her husband’s name? • What did her husband work at? • How did Sylvia Plath die? • Name one of Plath’s published works.

9. Tuesday Period 8 • Classwork: Questions 1- 5 page 377 • Homework: Look over notes from today and prepare for a short quiz next Tuesday. • Work will be checked next Tuesday.

10. Poppies in July • Written during the break up of Plath’s marriage; • The poetic persona addresses the flowers in a voice that is overwrought and anguished • Originally poppies are a flower of rememberance of the war dead. In this poem it takes on a dark and destructive resonance, indicating a troubled mind. • One of the poems written before her death, Plath wrote that these poems report on “the weather of her inner universe”.

11. Poppies in July • Little poppies, little hell flames,
Do you do no harm? • You flicker. I cannot touch you.
I put my hands among the flames. Nothing burns • And it exhausts me to watch you
Flickering like that, wrinkly and clear red, like the skin of a mouth. • A mouth just bloodied.
Little bloody skirts! • There are fumes I cannot touch.
Where are your opiates, your nauseous capsules? • If I could bleed, or sleep! 
If my mouth could marry a hurt like that! • Or your liquors seep to me, in this glass capsule,
Dulling and stilling. • But colorless. Colorless.

12. Imagery • Beautiful flowers are being associated with violence and bloodshed “Little poppies… Little bloody skirts”; • The poem contains disturbing images when she puts her hands “among the flames” and suggests a self-destructive tendency.

13. Interpreting the Poem • This poem is open for many interpretations but the speaker is clearly distressed and acting out a psychological drama in her words. “Little poppies, little hell flames”, this opening metaphor sets the tone for the dark poem that follows. The flowers, usually associated as a joyful image of natural beauty, are immediately associated with evil. • Plath is deeply unhappy and feels trapped. The “glass capsule” (bell jar) is a reoccurring image in Plath’s work- being trapped in a glass jar, like an exhibit in a museum. A sense of stifling confinement. • Plath wants something to change in her life or wants it to end. The last line “But colorless. Colorless” can be interpreted as a death wish

14. Style and Form • Short dramatic statements, with careful punctuation, organised into unrhymed, irregular couplets. • Use of exclamation and question marks adds to the dramatic impact of the poem • There are a range of tones used: fascination, frustration, disgust, repulsion, intense desire and longing. • A range of sounds such as crackle of the flames in the opening lines. Onomatopoeic effect of the ‘c’ and ‘k’ which is in stark contrast to the final three lines of the poem with the soft ‘s’ sounds and the long ‘u’ and ‘ou’ vowels which create a sense of ease and quiet.

15. Personal Response • Imagine that you are the poet. Write two diary entries that give your reaction to the poem a long time after you first wrote it.

16. Child • Published eight years after Plath’s death; • Written shortly after her sons first birthday and less than two weeks before Plath took her own life; • Beautifully phrased and composed poem expressing her frustrated wishes for her child • Difficult not to read without taking in the context in which is was written as the poem presents a speaker who has lost confidence in her ability to create joy • It depicts a mother who is unable to escape her own anguish and despair but anxious to spare her child the sight of it • She does not want the child’s clear eye to witness the pain she endures however she lacks the strength and self belief to make things otherwise.

17. Child Your clear eye is the one absolutely beautiful thing. I want to fill it with color and ducks, The zoo of the new Whose name you meditate -- April snowdrop, Indian pipe, Little Stalk without wrinkle, Pool in which images Should be grand and classical Not this troublous Wringing of hands, this dark Ceiling without a star.

18. Interpreting the Poem • Key themes: love for her child and her own desperation • Clear, simple language- a young child could understand it. Reference to childish things “colour and ducks”, “the zoo of the new”, “April Snowdrop”, “Indian Pipe”- its simplicity adds a tone of poignancy to the poem. • Stark contrast between the joy and colour of the child’s world and the despair and darkness that engulfs the poet. The “zoo of the new” is a perfect phrase to describe the variety and adventure of new experiences and things she intends for the child. This is contrasted with the “troublous/ Wringing of hands, this dark/ Ceiling without a star”. • “the one absolutely beautiful thing”- use of superlative adjectives captures the admiration of the child’s innocence, beauty and purity. • Images of light and darkness are used- Plath would like to provide her child with vast horizons of opportunity- a starlit sky- but for her there is only darkness without a guiding star or hope. The phrase wringing of hands conveys powerlessness, anger and frustration. The image of a “dark ceiling” suggests limitation and lack of focus, a type of imprisonment “without a star” (hint at claustrophobia?)

19. Style and Form • “Child” exemplifies Plath’s skill and judgment as a poet. • The sounds and language are almost childlike, as in keeping with the content. • The despair that underlies the poem is managed and controlled. • It is clear that every word is carefully chosen for example “little” (line 6) and “dark” (line11) are perfectly placed. • Plath uses natural images to illustrate complex emotions. The child is described as a metaphor: “Pool in which images / Should be grand and classical“. The child is a symbol of pure innocence and hope. • Plath is hopeful in her wishes for her child, thus the poem starts off in a positive tone. Soon it becomes clear that the poet is incapable of providing these opportunities for her child and her anguish becomes all too clear. The poem doesn’t just end on a negative tone, but a desperate and alarming one.

20. Imagery • “Your clear eye…. I want to fill it with colour and ducks….Zoo of the new” • “Pool in which images should be grand and classical”

21. “Why I enjoy reading the poetry of Sylvia Plath”

22. Personal Response • If you could write a letter to Sylvia Plath, after reading “child”, what would you say to her? • Or • What music would you select to accompany a reading of this poem? Explain your choice.

23. The Arrival of the Bee Box • I ordered this, clean wood box • Square as a chair and almost too heavy to lift. • I would say it was the coffin of a midget • Or a square baby • Were there not such a din in it. • The box is locked, it is dangerous. • I have to live with it overnight • And I can't keep away from it. • There are no windows, so I can't see what is in there. • There is only a little grid, no exit. • I put my eye to the grid. • It is dark, dark, • With the swarmy feeling of African hands • Minute and shrunk for export, • Black on black, angrily clambering. • How can I let them out? • It is the noise that appalls me most of all, • The unintelligible syllables. • It is like a Roman mob, • Small, taken one by one, but my god, together! • I lay my ear to furious Latin. • I am not a Caesar. • I have simply ordered a box of maniacs. • They can be sent back. • They can die, I need feed them nothing, I am the owner. • I wonder how hungry they are. • I wonder if they would forget me • If I just undid the locks and stood back and turned into a tree. • There is the laburnum, its blond colonnades, • And the petticoats of the cherry. • They might ignore me immediately • In my moon suit and funeral veil. • I am no source of honey • So why should they turn on me? • Tomorrow I will be sweet God, I will set them free. • The box is only temporary.

24. Plath and Hughes, in 1962, decided to take up bee keeping. Following their separation, Plath wrote a series of poems about bees. The Arrival of the Bee Box, is one that can exists on its own. It explores the nature of the self and self-identity; personal fears; complex relations and attitudes towards freedom and control. • The box itself both frightens and fascinates the speaker of the poem. However, the bee box is often read as a symbol for the inner life of the speaker or a symbol for poetry itself, a formal shape which contains a swarm of ideas and feelings.

25. Interpreting the Poem • Can be read as the story of an inexperienced beekeeper who orders a box of bees and is then afraid to release them. • White female beekeeper wants to free the black bees but she is appalled by them and afraid of what they might do to her • A psychological drama between the inner turmoil of the speaker ( version of Plath), and the outer, the control Plath displays • Danger involved in writing poetry- the bees could represent her mind and the repressed feelings, memories, and ideas it contains. It is a dangerous subject matter that both fascinates and appalls her. The box could represent the poem- a structure that contains and controls the dangerous swarming content of her mind. • The beekeeper by opening the bee box is releasing repressed feelings.

26. Style and Form of the Poem • Five lined Unrhymed stanzas • The Language is direct and powerful. From the beginning with “this”, the speaker utters words in short, sharp bursts. • Repitition of “dark”, “black” and ‘I’ has a dramatic impact on the poem • Run on lines and conversational words- like a story • Repition of the sound “r” “Square”, “chair”, “were” and “there” and the final word “temporary” • Narrative structure, use of present tense- sense of flow of time and live the experience with the speaker • The last line escapes the five line stanza structure- the speaker announces her intention to free the bees in a line, that seems to escape the formal structure of the poem.

27. Mirror • I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.Whatever I see I swallow immediatelyJust as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.I am not cruel, only truthful-The eye of the little god, four cornered.Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall. It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so longI think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.Faces and darkness separate us over and over. • Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,Searching my reaches for what she really is.Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.I am important to her. She comes and goes.Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old womanRises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

28. About the Poem • One of a group of poems written Autumn 1961 before Plath’s 29th birthday. Ted Hughes and Plath had just moved to Court Green in Devon. • Plath was pregnant with her second child and did not write another poem until before the birth of her baby, Nicholas.

29. Interpreting the Poem • Mirrors are reoccurring in Plath’s poems. Perhaps, they suggest the dangers of judging ourselves too harshly, or of seeking perfection. Or they may suggest the lonely drama of living and dying, as it was, in the end, Plath herself. • The world of the poem is a bleak and unloving one. The perceiving and recording intelligence is cold and inhuman. It gives nothing creative, warm or assuring to the woman. • Some may feel the controlled accuracy of the language of this poem emphasises the agitation and disturbed feelings that lie carefully behind the well chosen words and phrases.

30. Style and Form • A nine-line stanza poem, with irregular length lines but the lines are mostly long. On the page, the two stanzas of the poem appear to mirror each other. • Short words with final voiced consonants (“exact”, “just”, “pink”, “part” and so on) and with many of the lines forming complete sentences create an impression of cold precision and exactness like the mirror itself. • The cold tone of the poem is reflected in the carefully phrased statements and harsh “k” sounds of the first stanza. • Like poem “Elm”, Plath uses personification to achieve a sinister affect. • The run on line (line 17) that continues with “rises” in the last line of the poem works brilliantly to mirror the shock of the “old woman” rising like a “terrible fish”.

31. Pheasant • You said you would kill it this morning.Do not kill it. It startles me still,The jut of that odd, dark head, pacingThrough the uncut grass on the elm's hill.It is something to own a pheasant,Or just to be visited at all.I am not mystical: it isn'tAs if I thought it had a spirit.It is simply in its element. • That gives it a kingliness, a right.The print of its big foot last winter,The trail-track, on the snow in our courtThe wonder of it, in that pallor,Through crosshatch of sparrow and starling.Is it its rareness, then? It is rare.But a dozen would be worth having,A hundred, on that hill-green and red,Crossing and recrossing: a fine thing!It is such a good shape, so vivid.It's a little cornucopia.It unclaps, brown as a leaf, and loud,Settles in the elm, and is easy.It was sunning in the narcissi.I trespass stupidly. Let be, let be.

32. The Pheasant • Written in April 1962, during an enormous bout of creativity. • It originates from when Plath glimpses a pheasant standing on a hill at the back of her house • Some critics view this poem in terms of its speaker and the person she addresses. One could identify the “you” of the poem as Ted Hughes who came from a Yorkshire family that were well used to hunting

33. Critical Interpretation • Some critics believe that the plea is not about the pheasant but for the poet herself. The poem was written during a tense period in her marriage and thus can presume Plath is the speaker and the “you” mentioned is Ted Hughes. • The Pheasant could represent the marriage under threat from the male- who is intent on destroying it. • The female pleas for it, suggesting the relationship of power is an unequal one- the male having the control over life or death (like ABB) • The male is a silent, powerful presence in the poem leaving the female the pleading supplicant.

34. Form • A conversational Quality with anguished tone. There is also an envious tone at the ease in which the pheasant “settles in the elm and is easy”. • Tone changes as the speaker describes herself trespassing on the pheasant. • Apart from the final line, Plath uses a nine-syllable lines with subtle rhymes and half rhymes in the poem. • Follows the terzarima scheme: ABA BCB CDC DED etc • This poem is impressive as Plath retains a conversational tone whilst following this strict form.

35. Black Rook in Rainy Weather • On the stiff twig up there • Hunches a wet black rook • Arranging and rearranging its feathers in the rain. • I do not expect a miracle • Or an accident • To set the sight on fire • In my eye, not seek • Any more in the desultory weather some design, • But let spotted leaves fall as they fall, • Without ceremony, or portent. • Although, I admit, I desire, • Occasionally, some backtalk • From the mute sky, I can't honestly complain: • A certain minor light may still • Leap incandescent • Out of the kitchen table or chair • As if a celestial burning took • Possession of the most obtuse objects now and then --- • Thus hallowing an interval • Otherwise inconsequent • By bestowing largesse, honor, • One might say love. At any rate, I now walk • Wary (for it could happen • Even in this dull, ruinous landscape); sceptical, • Yet politic; ignorant • Of whatever angel may choose to flare • Suddenly at my elbow. I only know that a rook • Ordering its black feathers can so shine • As to seize my senses, haul • My eyelids up, and grant • A brief respite from fear • Of total neutrality. With luck, • Trekking stubborn through this season • Of fatigue, I shall • Patch together a content • Of sorts. Miracles occur, • If you care to call those spasmodic • Tricks of radiance miracles. The wait's begun again, • The long wait for the angel. • For that rare, random descent.

36. Black Rook in Rainy Weather • (Explores poetic inspiration – those moments that offer a respite from fear of total neutrality) • Black Rook explores the nature of poetic inspiration. It’s the moment that "a celestial burning" takes place and an "angel" descends, "that rare, random descent" when the poet is inspired by a common thing--a "kitchen table or chair," a "rook ordering its feathers," or "the most obtuse objects now and then.“ • The poem beautifully captures what poetry meant to Plath; the brutal honesty of it strips the act of writing to its bare essentials--that amazing moment all poets wait for, the moment of inspiration, when suddenly something is illuminated, and all there is to do is to write a poem about it, to capture that moment in language, to commemorate that blissful interval when they become a vehicle for transcendence. • Plath believes that it is these “miracles” that offer a “brief respite from fear” for without them, her life would be intolerable.

37. Form • Unrhymed five-lined stanzas, a form that Plath also uses in Arrival of the Bee Box. This form allows for flexibility in rhythm and pacing. It takes on a lyrical meditation. • She marries sound to emotional tone of the poem: “Trekking stubborn through this season”: the long vowel sounds and the alliteration capture the effort and labourassociated with being a poet. • The images displayed in the poem are light and radiant with hints of a transformation: “From the mute sky, I can't honestly complain: A certain minor light may still Leap incandescent” • Tone: Fearful, hopeful and cautious. (Find evidence of these in the poem.

39. Give your personal response to the poetry of Sylvia Plath, describing the impact of the poems upon you. Support your answer by relevant quotation from the poems you have studied. All five areas should be concentrated on in your own personal notes: Her themes, for example Entrapment, Exploration of the Mind and Power and Freedom The anguished voice of some of her poems The startling imagery and symbolism employed in the poems Her skill as a poet The relationship between her life and her poetry

40. Sylvia Plath: Themes Entrapment; Exploration of the Mind; Power and Freedom

41. STOP! • Remember when writing the title of one of Sylvia Plath’s poem highlight or underline it. • Don’t forget, in Higher Level English, poems are not given on the day of the exam. You must learn specific lines of the poem to be able to support your view. • Support is

42. Entrapment: How are the following poems about entrapment? • In Child, Plath compares life to a zoo. She feels life is a big collection of cages for people to be trapped in. This becomes apparent when she says “not this troublous wringing of hands”. The troublous wringing symbolises…. • her agitated mind and a world which is “without a star”. She feels there is no hope in life and her feelings of inadequacy – not being able to fill her son’s life with colours and ducks • Sylvia Plath’s Pheasant is a brilliantly dramatic poem about a woman pleading to a man to spare a pheasant he has threatened to kill… • In Poppies in July, the speaker is acting out a psychological drama…

43. Exploration of the Mind:What do the following poems tell us about Sylvia Plath’s mind? • Plath’s poetry is a great example of the exploration of the mind and how deeply personal poetry can be. “Child” is a perfect example of this. The poem begins with a fascination and love for her child: “Your clear eye is the one absolutely beautiful thing”. Plath’s world is… • In Arrival of the Bee Box, the poem is deeply personal and disturbing as it explores Plath’s dark mind and the struggle within it. “I lay my ear to furious latin… I have simply ordered a box of maniacs”. The bees in the box represent……… Sylvia Plath’s mental anguish and inner demons. She calls them maniacs because she feels they will her if set loose but, again, she wants to experience their inspiration and their emotion. A disturbing quality to this is poem is that Plath predicted her own suicide in the line “with my moon suit and funeral veil” which leads the reader to assume she undid the locks eventually. Afterall, “the box is only temporary”. • In Mirror the technique of personification is employed to achieve a sinister affect. The mirror becomes….

44. Power and Freedom:What do the following poems have to do with Power and Freedom? • In “Pheasant” and “The Arrival of the Beebox” she worries that power corrupts people in frightening ways. • “Pheasant” • “The Arrival of the Beebox”

45. The anguished voice of some of her poems • In Pheasant, the repetition of “let be” suggests the speaker is………. emotional and over wrought • The speaker in Poppies in July is anguished and emotional. We see this when…. • Sylvia Plath’s Child begins with a mother who is inventive and fun but she becomes anxious and full of despair as she does not want……..

46. Style of Sylvia Plath:Carefully Composed and Beautifully Phrased • In Mirror, the controlled accuracy of the language of the poem emphasizes the agitation and disturbed feelings that lie behind….. • In Poppies in July, short dramatic statements… • In Pheasants, Plath’s ability to retain a conversational quality whilst still maintaining a strict form is remarkable. (give details here) • A prime example of a beautifully phrased poem is Sylvia Plath’s Child…

47. The startling imagery and symbolism employed in the poems • Plath has a unique way with words and a wonderful array of images that add to the personality of each poem….. • In Mirror, the image of the second stanza is striking. Like the bee box in The Arrival of the Bee Box, the lake represents the dark and fearful inner life. In Mirror, the woman is alone and has no one else to turn to, except the moon and the candles. • Similarly in Child, Plath used water as a metaphor • Poppies in Julydisplays a terrifying array of images, in which the speaker sees the poppies as…..

48. The relationship between her life and her poetry • As poets come and go, few I found were as self revealing as Sylvia Plath. This is one of the primary aspects of her poetry that appeals to me….. • In many of her poems she reveals how difficult the act of writing poetry is. We see this in….. • As a woman in a male dominated society, Plath felt unable to express her feelings and outlooks and turned to writing poetry as a means of escape from what she felt to be an unrewarding life. Her poetry portrays a woman who constantly struggled with depression and mental illness and is a vast collection of pure and raw emotion that I can’t help but admire. Where does this occur? • Towards the end of Plath’s marriage was an intense personal and psychological turmoil for Plath, as both her relationship and mental state disintegrated she experienced a heightened level of creativity. What poems do you see this in?

49. Write a note under the above headings. Try and include evidence in at least two of Plath’ poems. • Plath depicts a difficult relationship between her life and her poetry. • Poems are intense, deeply personal and disturbing. • Plath’s poetry is full of her deep doubts and fears which she reveals with startling honesty. • Poems are poised between celebration and despair • There are many images of entrapment and release