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Sylvia Plath is born
Boston, Massachussetts, United States -
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Sylvia Plath's life
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A sorcerer bids farwell to seem
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Two lovers and a beachcomber by the real sea
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Spinster
Spinster is about a woman who is in love with order. Winter is a metaphor for this, as winter is connected to order, whereas spring is associated with chaos. In order to prevent the feeling or hurt or loss, she must give up the idea of love (mentioned in the last few line). Being with a man will also disrupt her usual routine which she cannot do. Plath uses a lot of harsh word sounds like \'particular\' to emphasize her love for order. -
Sylvia Plath gets married
Sylvia Plath gets married to Ted Hughes in the church of saint george -
Vanity Fair
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Night Shift
The picture that I have is of a housewife sewing one evening when she becomes aware of the distant noise. There is no reason why it should be a housewife, or why she should be sewing; it is just what type of quiet activity I would expect a woman in the 50s to be doing. I should do more research! As Plath is the poet, let’s stick with the image of a woman (alone in the house, for want of a reference to anybody else there), but perhaps she is doing the crossword, writing an essay or reading. So -
Ouija
The Ouija board was her husband's idea, as Plath scholar Kathleen Connors writes: "Along with compiling lists of potential subjects for Plath's poems and stories, Hughes advised her on meditation techniques, and used hypnotism and their hand-made Ouija board on a regular basis. Calling these sessions ' magnificent fun,' Plath was intrigued by the concept of 'Pan,' their main 'spirit contact' called on for advice on poetry subjects, and sometimes to get numbers for horse races."3 Many poems were -
Lorelei
A little backstory before you read the poem on the origin of the name Lorelei/Lorelai. The Lorelei is actually a large rock that sits on the eastern bank of the Rhine river (at the narrowest point). A very strong current and rocks below the waterline have caused many sailors to crash amongst her rocks. In addition, this hazardous rock has sparked forklore of a water sprite, also named Lorelei. In the tale, Lorelei sits on the cliffs above the Rhine, combing her hair and unwittingly distracti -
Mushrooms
It is a fine example of her work, with the use of alliteration, assonance, symbolism, internal rhyme and repetition. This obsessive compulsive’s delight is written with the sharp clean structured precision of a surgeon. At first glance “Mushrooms” has all the trademarks of the perfect terrorist broadcast al-Qa’iada would aspire to have read out by Osama Bin-Laden to cast fear in the hearts of their enemies, with it’s quietly menacing slow yet rhythmic flow. (Although one feels that if the Talib -
Sylvia's first child Frieda Rebecca was born
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Stillborn
The purpose of this poem is to convey Plathâs dissatisfaction with her poems to the readers. She achieves this using extended metaphor by comparing her poems with stillborn babies. She also shows her confusion towards her dead poems by the use of diction, figurative language and structure.
Throughout the poem, Plath has used extended metaphor to emphasize on her disappointment and sadness by comparing poems which are non-living with stillborn babies who are expected to be alive but are not. Pl -
Tulips
"Tulips" is a first-person poem about a woman recovering from an unknown operation in a hotel room.
The woman first notes that her hospital room is like "winter," white and resembling snow, and that the newly-arrived tulips are too "excitable" for such whiteness. Everything is peaceful as she lies on her bed quietly, watching the light play on the walls, on the bed, and on her hands. She considers herself inconsequential, utterly removed from loud, explosive things. She has surrendered her ident -
Morning Song
The speaker, "I," addresses a new baby, "you," throughout this poem. The baby is born and begins screaming. The speaker reflects on how the baby looks and sounds in its first moments of life. Soon the family watches the baby in its bed, a form of viewership that strikes the speaker as something similar to viewing a statue at an art museum. At home, the speaker stays awake most of the night, listening to the baby breathing. Once the baby starts to cry, the speaker (who we now know is the baby' -
Mirror
In this poem, a mirror describes its existence and its owner, who grows older as the mirror watches.
The mirror first describes itself as “silver and exact.” It forms no judgments, instead merely swallowing what it sees and reflecting that image back without any alteration. The mirror is not cruel, “only truthful.” It considers itself a four-cornered eye of a god, which sees everything for what it is. -
Poppies in July
ackground Poem wrote during the breakup of her marriage
Feelings of numbness and despair
The only way she can see that she exists or escaping this numbness is through pain or becoming drugged.
Poem Title Suggests beauty and happiness but contrasts greatly with the content of the poem. Is she questioning if there is any beauty or happiness in the world. -
Daddy
The speaker creates a figurative image of her father, using many different metaphors to describe her relationship with him. He's like a black shoe that she's had to live in; like a statue that stretches across the United States; like God; like a Nazi; like a Swastika; and, finally, like a vampire. The speaker, faced with her father as a giant and evil Nazi, takes the part of a Jew and a victim. Yet, with this poem, the speaker gets her revenge, claiming that she's killed both her father and the -
Ariel
"Ariel" depicts a woman riding her horse in the countryside, at the very break of dawn. It details the ecstasy and personal transformation that occurs through the experience. The poem begins with complete immobility in the darkness, while the rider waits on the horse. There is then a change – the intangible blue of hills and distances come into being. The rider is "God's lioness;" she experiences the sensation of becoming one with her horse in a powerful entangling of knees and heels. The plowe -
The Bee Meeting
The bees refer to the people around her who agree with her about Hughes's affair. She says they will not notice, this refers to her sorrow and fears of Hughes leaving Plath. As she says "my fear," the emotion changes from highly energetic almost convincing herself to sorrow in which she thinks about her fear. -
Crossing the Water
I think that Plath uses black and dark imagery to communicate both the theme of night time, and the darkness that lies under the water. In reading this poem I have the image of a boat cutting through the water in my mind, “shake from the oar.” The light can only reach what lies below the surface of the water when it “[filters] from the water flowers.” -
Cut
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Child
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Edge
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Sylvia Plath Dies
Commits suicide by stuffing her head in the oven.
