Edge Sylvia Plath Analysis

Jacob Berry AP Lit Module 7 Poetry Prompt 2 “Edge”

In the poem, “Edge” was the last piece of poetry written by author Sylvia Plath before she committed suicide. As the poem conveys the theme of death, sadly it may be viewed as a suicide note by the poet. Throughput the poem, Plath uses symbolism and imagery to convey the theme of death and bring depth and meaning to the poem.

Plath uses symbolism to illustrate the theme of death as she describes the death of a woman and her children. Based on her symbolism, Plath does not seem to regret death. She writes “The woman is perfected/Her dead/Body wears the smile of accomplishment.” In this line, Plath is using the actual death of the woman as a symbol of death being the completion of life, as she emphasizes that with death the “woman was perfected” and it was an “accomplishment.” She further conveys the idea of death as she writes “as the petals/Of a rose close” with the closing of the rose being symbolic of death being the closure of life. As the poet explains the woman’s children each being as “one at each little pitcher of milk,” the pitchers of milk are symbolic of a mother feeding her children with milk, and in the past would have been a symbol of life, however in the poem the pitcher of milk is “now empty” thus again suggesting symbolism of death. The dead mother has had feeling of love toward the

dead children as the poet describes how “she has folded/Them back into her body as petals.” The mother took care to “fold” her children and thus symbolizes some aspect of care for them even in death. Also in death, the body stiffens, and thus the lines “…when the garden/stiffens and odors bleed” can be symbolic of death.
Imagery is used throughout the poem to support theme of death. Much use of visual imagery has the reader’s mind able to envision the dead woman as Plath writes “The illusion of Greek necessity/Flows on the scrolls of her toga.” The reader sees the dead woman wearing a toga, flowing and because togas generally are white, the dead woman is visualized in white, thus suggesting the image of purity. Even the image of each dead child as “coiled, a white serpent.” Is provoking. The children are envisioned in the reader’s mind through Plath’s visual imagery as serpents, but are given the color white again suggesting purity in her theme of death. The image of the dead woman with a “smile of accomplishment” may be interpreted as the woman in the poem has committed suicide, and thus her death was intended, or an accomplishment, just as Plath herself will commit suicide. Although Plath does not specifically use the word “red” she uses imagery that implies the color red to the reader suggestive of blood, thus related to the death theme: “a rose close when the garden/Stiffens and odors bleed.” The word “stiffens” provokes the image of the dead as the dead are stiff. Plath also uses the image of a personified moon “staring from her hood of bone” to describe the image of the moon and a hood of bone, again implying the color white as the moon and bone are both white. Her color imagery may be suggesting the author views death as a pure and desirable state. Through the use of her imagery, including much use of the color white, Plath seems to have been implying she was comfortable with the idea of death and death as a pure state.
In Plath’s poem, “Edge,” her use of the combination of symbolism and imagery throughout the poem suggests not only the idea of death, but death as an accomplishment for the subjects of the poem: the dead woman and her dead children.

Her vivid imagery helps the reader envision the dead woman while her use of symbolism more deeply conveys her thoughts and attitude on the subject of death. Having the knowledge that the author, Plath, committed suicide after composing the poem make the reader even further understand why Plath may have titled her poem “Edge” for as she wrote it she was at the edge of her own

death.