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Themes and poetic style of Sylvia Plath
Biographical essays of sylvia plath
Research study on sylvia plath
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Recommended: Themes and poetic style of Sylvia Plath
Emerging in the 1950s and 1960s, confessional poetry was essentially an autobiographical style of writing. Often focusing on topics that were taboo at the time like mental illness and suicide, it is no surprise that Sylvia Plath wrote poetry in this style. Plath suffered from depression most of her life and used writing as an outlet (Spinello). In her works “Cut,” “I Am Vertical,” and “Lady Lazarus,” Plath exemplifies confessional poetry through the themes of resentment, death, and mental illness.
To understand why Plath is placed in the literary category that she is, there needs to be knowledge of her personal life. Born in 1932 in Massachusetts, Plath led a short and tragic life. Even as a young girl she excelled in academics, but her strength and interest was always in writing. Unfortunately, her prose often reflected the misfortunes that she faced. When she was only eight, she lost her father to an illness he had battled for some time. The death of her father haunted her throughout her entire life and it seemed as though it was an obsession of sorts for Plath.
All the while, she strived to reach a level of perfection that was unattainable. As a result, she always felt that she was not good enough. She attempted suicide for the first time when she was in college, but following treatment she returned to school and finished. She continued to write poetry, but her poems seemed to obsess over pain and were often very morbid. She met poet Ted Hughes, who would eventually be the man to publish her poetry following her death, when at Cambridge University attending a fellowship study. The two were married in 1956 and had two children together. Feeling the pressures of being a mother and a wife while trying to be a poet were beginning ...
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...self-destructiveness” that fueled her writing (“Overview”) and helped her to become one of the most well known poets of her time.
Works Cited
Kendall, Tim. Sylvia Plath: A Critical Study. London: Faber and Faber, 2001. Print.
"Overview of Sylvia Plath." DISCovering Authors. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
Plath, Sylvia, and Ted Hughes. The Collected Poems. New York: Harper & Row, 1981. Print.
Rosenberg, Ellen. "Sylvia Plath." DISCovering Authors. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
Spinello, Serena. "The Manifestation of Mental Illness in Sylvia Plath's Poetry." Yahoo Contributor Network. N.p., 21 Oct. 2008. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.
Uroff, M. D. "Sylvia Plath and Confessional Poetry: A Reconsideration." DISCovering Authors. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.
Sylvia Plath a highly acclaimed twentieth century American poet whose writings were mostly influenced by her life experiences. Her father died shortly after her eighth birthday and her first documented attempt at suicide was in her early twenties. She was married at age twenty-three and when she discovered her husband was having an affair she left him with their two children. Her depression and the abandonment she felt as a child and as a woman is what inspires most of her works. Daddy is a major decision point where Plath decides to overcome her father’s death by telling him she will no longer allow his memory to control her.
Aurelia Schober, Plath’s mother, was studying at Boston University when she fell in love with her professor that taught German and biology, Otto Plath, whom she would marry in January 1932. Later in that same year on October 27, Plath was born to the couple. Plath’s father passed away when she was only eight. (Academy of American Poets) From then on, Plath began publishing her poems. In everything she did, she strived towards being flawless; she had straight A’s, was a good daughter, and earned prestigious prizes (Gilson). Schober aided in pushing her daughter towards excellence and always made sure Plath knew how proud she was of her. In fact, Sylvia’s mother collected her daughter’s achievements and praised her highly for them (Liukkonen). By 1950, she had been given a scholarship to attend Smith College and had hundreds of publications, which she would add to substantially in the time she spent at Smith (Gilson).
Emily Dickinson is regarded as “America’s most original poet” and was born on December 10th, 1830 (CITATION1). During her life, she spent most of her time alone in her house, spending time with only herself and writing poetry. When she died at the age of fifty-five, her sister decided to publish the 1,800 poems Emily had written. Before her death, Emily had only published ten of her poems. Because of this, she was not widely known before she died, unlike Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath, on the other hand, is a well-known author and poet. She even won the Pulitzer Prize award for Poetry in 1982 (CITATION2). Sylvia was similar to Emily Dickinson in that she was not an outgoing person. In fact, she was often depressed, and eventually took her own life in 1963 (CITATION3). While unfortunate, Sylvia Plath had written many popular poems, such as “Daddy”, short stories, and a semi-autobiographical novel called “The Bell Jar”.
Sylvia Plath, a great American author, focuses mostly on actual experiences. Plath’s poetry displays feelings and emotions. Plath had the ability to transform everyday happenings into poems or diary entries. Plath had a passion for poetry and her work was valued. She was inspired by novelists and her own skills. Her poetry was also very important to readers and critics. Sylvia Plath’s work shows change throughout her lifetime, relates to feelings and emotions, and focuses on day to day experiences.
Plath was born in the seaside town of Winthrop, Massachusetts during the year of 1932. In her first eight years of life, Plath was troubled with the birth of a new sibling, the death of a parent, and the start of a war. These eight years were the calm before the stormy life of Sylvia Plath. As an only child, Plath felt threatened by the new baby in the family. Her new sibling, Warren, sparked a disdain for children that Plath would harbor for the rest of her life. In 1940, Plath’s father died and essentially robbed the children of a proper relationship with their mourning mother. The family moved inland where Plath focused on writing poetry until she began to attend Smith College in 1950.
"About." Personal Blog, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. [When finding an explanation for the similarities between the writers, it is important to play close attention to biographies. In case the psychoeconomic factors that Ruonco describes are true, then biography constitutes most of the development of the Sylvia Plath affliction. Moreover, the biography provides an insight into the views of the author for a better and more accurate understanding of her poetry. Furthermore, it is imperative to use her auto-statement since she referres to her "muse" as something out of her control which can be traced to Kaufman's
death as the subject of several of her poems. In her poem "Because I Could Not
Most commentators applaud her for her prose, however, critics assert that her poems are “superficial and devoid of humor” because of her dependence on alliteration, use of short lines, and conventional vocabulary. In contrary, other critics admire her “refreshing and graceful” poetic style. For example, Keefe defines her poems as “curving scimitars that skillfully pierce the hearts of their readers.” This source is somewhat helpful because I helps me in understanding the author’s writing style; by understanding her writing style I should be able to accurately analysis the poem correctly when I am writing my research
There were very few of her poems that I could understand or even enjoy reading, I felt a sense of bleakness, despair, loneliness in most of the poems that she wrote. In her poem “She died—this was the way she died. There was the use of eye rhyme (Charters page 764) when she used the word spied and ended the poem by saying “upon the mortal side”. Also in her poem I’m nobody! Who are you? Sounds as if she also had a low self esteem by stating that she was a nobody.
Plath’s works were known for their extremely feminist and suicidal themes. Plath wrote about whatever came to her mind and used writing as a way to express her feelings. Plath is credited with furthering the genre of confessional poetry. Plath was also the first poet to receive the Pulitzer Prize after death. Although Plath had taken her life, her legacy still lives on in many ways.
Giles, Richard F. “Sylvia Plath.” Magill’s Critical Survey of Poetry. Ed. Frank N. Magill, b. 1875. Pasadena: Salem Press, 1992.
The poem, “Mad Girl’s Love Song”, highlights Sylvia Plath’s struggle with depression and her mental illness. As a form of expression, Sylvia Plath wrote “Mad Girl’s Love Song” in 1953, her last years of her life. Six years into Plath’s marriage with English poet, Ted Hughes, depression started to kick off in her life. Hughes began seeing other women and not responding to Plath as her husband. According to the Poetry Foundation, “She let her writing express elemental forces and primeval fears”. Plath’s poetry slowly became more violent and intense. Many people like to blame Hughes for her mental illness. In 1953 Plath decided to end her life by using her gas oven.
“I dont have the passion anymore, and so remember, It’s better to burn out than to fade away.”- Kurt Cobain. Before Sylvia Plath had ended her life, she made sure to finished her writings and left nothing unsaid. The loss of her father, suffering from depression, and the spin out of her marriage where all events that led to Sylvia Plath writing morbid but great poems. Throughout her life, Sylvia Plath had many unexpected setbacks that affected her poetry.
Through her dark and intense poetry, Sylvia Plath left an eternal mark on the literary community. Her personal struggles with depression, insecurities, and suicidal thoughts influenced her poetry and literary works. As a respected twentieth century writer, Sylvia Plath incorporated various literary techniques to intensify her writing. Her use of personification, metaphors, and allusions in her poems “Ariel,” “Lady Lazarus,” and “Edge”, exemplifies her talent as a poet and the influence her own troubled life had on her poetry. According to “Sylvia Plath” Sylvia Plath struggled with severe depression throughout her life.
Plath’s father died early in her life leaving her with unresolved feelings, and this brought a lot of troubles later on in life. Sylvia was a great student but when she was overwhelmed with disappointments after a month in New York, she attempted suicide (“Sylvia Plath”). After receiving treatment and recovering, she returned to school and later moved to England where she met her future husband, Ted Hughes (“Sylvia Plath”). Their marriage with two children didn’t last when Ted had an affair. They separated and Ted moved in with the new woman, leaving Sylvia and their two children. Battling depression during this time, Sylvia soon ended her life. She left behind numerous writings that many might see as signs of her depression and suicide attempts.