Sylvia Plath [1932-1963] Relevant Background Early Life Sylvia Plath was born in Boston USA. She grew up in a well-off middle class home on the coast. Sylvia’s early years were influenced by her living near the ocean. ‘I sometimes think my vision of the sea is the clearest thing I own.’ Her experiences of family [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Sylvia Plath’
4 Sep
Child – Sylvia Plath
Written: 1963, increased depression state, two weeks before suicide Rhyme & Tone: Humorous, yet desolate. Four 3-line stanzas Themes: Struggles, Inspiration (lost the capacity to find beauty within herself) Depression, Childhood Poetic Techniques: Antithesis: Balance and contrast of two types of aging. The poem must be read in light of her death, given that the [...]
4 Sep
Poppies In July – Sylvia Plath
Written: 1962. Shortly after Plath confirmed Ted’s affair. Rhyme & Tone: Everyday speech. Vile, vivid and numb. Seven irregular un-rhyming two line couplets followed by a single line. Imagery: Image of fire. Metaphors, similes, apostrophe Themes: Struggles (failed relationship), Inspiration (exhausted), Depression (drugs). Poetic Techniques: Apostrophe: speaker addresses a dead or absent person, or inanimate [...]
4 Sep
Pheasant – Sylvia Plath
Written: After her son Nicholas’s birth in January 1962, Plath began to realise Hughes was unfaithful; she expressed herself through increasingly angry – and powerful – poems. It was during the following April that Plath wrote ‘Pheasant‘ in opposition to her husband’s game shooting Rhyme & Tone: Everyday speech, wonder. Look at the erratic, yet overall [...]
4 Sep
Mirror – Sylvia Plath
Written: Around the same time as Finisterre Rhyme & Tone: Sombre. Poem reads as a burden. Cold and callous tone. Also note the personification. Imagery: Read it as if she is looking in on herself. Note the obvious Mirror image. Themes: Struggles, Inspiration (turned inwards) Stanza 1. Initially we are given the picture of an [...]
4 Sep
Finisterre – Sylvia Plath
Written: Autumn of 1961 (memory of a holiday in France) She had just moved to a farmhouse in Devon with Hughes. Rhyme & Tone: Harsh sound effects, disharmony (last fingers…rheumatic…cramped on nothing à look for the k and v sounds). The heavy four-beat lines capture the sombre and depressed atmosphere, with many words having more [...]
4 Sep
Morning Song – Sylvia Plath
Written: 1961 Plath experienced a miscarriage, she then wrote the song. Form: Six blank verse 3 line stanzas Tone: Gentle and sensuous ‘moth breath’, and troubled, ‘dull stars.’ Imagery: The mirror, cats, wind and sea. Themes: Struggles, Depression, Childhood, Nature. Poetic Techniques: Look for similes (two unlike things are compared using as or like). Stanza [...]
4 Sep
The Times Are Tidy – Sylvia Plath
Satire: Irony, sarcasm or ridicule. Highlighting the folly of humanity in ridicule. Written: Shortly after her marriage to Ted Hughes, around ‘Black Rook’ in the late 1950′s after WWII. She was often recognised for being the wife of Hughes and not for being a poet. She was finding it difficult to write her own work [...]
4 Sep
Black Rook in Rainy Weather – Sylvia Plath
Written: Shortly after her marriage to Ted Hughes Form: Recurring line rhyme, each of the 8 stanzas have a,b,c,d,e signifying initial chaos yet overall design. Tone: Unassuming and modest, ‘I do not…’ Resigned and Tolerant, ‘Let spotted leaves’, and finally flippant and ironic, ‘spasmodic tricks of radiance’ Imagery: Image of trees and nature (poetic device [...]
Damien Gallagher
