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Sylvia Plath's tone in the poem metaphors
Symbolism and imagery of sylvia plath
Sylvia Plath Metaphors
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Metaphors by Sylvia Plath describes feeling heavy, fat, and nauseous literally. However every phrase, every line, and every word in Metaphors symbolizes a deeper alternate meaning. Sylvia Plath uses metaphors, symbolism, and motifs to explain the feelings associated with pregnancy.
A riddle of 9 lines is the perfect way to describe this poem, and there is no coincidence that it in fact is the first line of the poem. This poem about a pregnant woman gives many hints toward pregnancy. The most obvious of these hints is the number 9, it is mentioned in the first line, and the poem consists of 9 lines of 9 syllables in each. The 9 months of pregnancy are shown though this. The protagonist also mentions being “a cow in calf” which lets the reader confirm their suspicions. The protagonist (cow) is carrying the baby (calf).
Feeling heavy and fat is the most recurring symbol in Metaphors. The protagonist compares herself to an elephant, a fat purse, and even goes so far as to calling herself “a melon strolling
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on two tendrils.” These all symbolize that the protagonist feels big, heavy, unbalanced, and clumsy. Along the feeling of unnatural largeness the protagonist also feels nauseous. Eating a bag of green apples that are extremely acidic will make anyone nauseous, and being pregnant makes her feel that same way. As stated before every phrase symbolizes an aspect of pregnancy.
The protagonist feels the physical effects of pregnancy, however she also experiences the worry and fear of a pregnant woman. “Boarded the train and there is no getting off.” is the last line of the poem and is also the most emotional line of the poem. Unlike the earlier 8 lines of the poem this phrase does not focus on feeling large or fat, it symbolizes the emotions of not feeling ready. The protagonist feels like she is now on a train and cannot get off, and does not know if this is what she wants. The protagonist does not know what to do, her life is about to change forever, and the way this line is written hints to the fact that this was not a planned pregnancy. The reader knows that the protagonist is more afraid and unhappy about the pregnancy because the poem focuses on all the bad aspects of pregnancy. Throughout the entire poem there never a mention of happiness or the man who did the
deed. There are 3 major stages of how the protagonist feels in this poem. First through symbolism it is described that she is pregnant. Sylvia Plath added a lot of emphasis on feeling unnatural and obese (symbolized by elephant, fat purse, big loaf, cow), which is then faded into the feeling of nausea caused by the pregnancy (symbolized by acidic apples). Finally attention is brought to the feelings associated with the pregnancy at which it becomes clear that not only does the protagonist feel bad physically but also feels unready emotionally. This poem uses imagery, motifs, metaphors, and symbolism to show its audience the aspects that accompany bearing an unplanned child.
In the poem titled " The Midwife Addresses the Newly Delivered Woman" the author portrays the strengths and fortune of an Aztec woman after she has successfully given birth to a child. The author mentions how courageous and brave the woman was while she went through the hard exhausting physical labor. This poem also remarks on the roles of women living in Aztec culture. Also the poem compares the difficulties women faced when giving birth to the hazards men were subject to in the art of warfare. In addition the author of the poem also warns the mother not to be too prideful as this gift is given by the creator, not her. In the poem the midwife also warns the mother of the hazards still to come to her and her newborn infant.
Stanza three again shows doubtfulness about the mother’s love. We see how the mother locks her child in because she fears the modern world. She sees the world as dangers and especially fears men. Her fear of men is emphasized by the italics used. In the final line of the stanza, the mother puts her son on a plastic pot. This is somewhat symbolic of the consumeristic society i.e. manufactured and cheap.
Metaphors are powerful tools often used by authors to communicate a deeper meaning. Metaphors also tend to make the piece more thought provoking, and thus more interesting and intriguing. Laura Esquivel does a marvelous job of using food as a metaphor for unexpressed emotions in the novel Like Water for Chocolate. She takes the aching soul of a young girl and turns it into a cookbook of feelings and emotions cleverly disguised with food.
Some examples of metaphor within the piece are when it says “your laughter’s so melodic it’s a song” and “your creativity’s a compass that leads you to what you love”. An example of evocative language in the piece is “you don’t need any miracle cream to keep your passions smooth, hair free or diet pills to slim your kindness down.” These metaphors and instances of evocative language help emphasise the message that it doesn’t matter what you look like, the most important thing you can love about yourself is ____. Metaphors, evocative language, and repetition are also used to describe the expectations laid upon women by society. One particular phrase that uses both metaphor and evocative language “because the only place we'll ever truly feel safe is curled up inside skin we've been taught to hate by a society that shuns our awful confidence and feeds us our flaws”. Other examples of evocative language include “a reminder that the mirror is meant to be a curse so I confine her in my mind, but when he or she shouts ‘let me out!’ we're allowed to listen.” and “Don't you shatter the illusion you could ever be anything beyond paper fine flesh and flashy teeth and fingernails.” One instance of repetition includes “echoic accusations of not good enough, never good enough”. Another phrase that uses both evocative language and repetition
... a symbolic story. The poems that were written by Emily Dickinson could be used as an example of controlling metaphors. Dickinson provides a poem that reflects on her feelings and thoughts over her lifetime. The symbolic message that runs through her work is the relationship between God and individuals. She provides one with a symbolic story but within her work the metaphors connecting to religion are over powering in the text.
In the poem the speaker imagines the lives that her unborn children could have possibly had. Not only does she think about their lives being taken away from them she thinks about what she took away from herself, motherhood. She mentions in the poem that they will “never wind up the sucking thumb”(Brooks 10). She also says that she would never get to breastfeed.
The class came to a conclusion that the narrator was actually pregnant but something happened to the baby. At one point since she says, "When I was pregnant..." and that is the only comment in the past tense. Everything else is in the mystical present or the 'would be' future, both being skeptical and wishing. The class speculated that whatever happened to this woman's baby (i.e. abortion, miscarriage, etc.) was not good, as if losing a baby in any way were a blessed event. In that case, the narrator could be taking her mental state away from the harsh reality and to a dreamlike place of the impossible.
This is shown through the tone changing from being disappointed and critical to acceptance and appreciative. The speaker’s friend, who after listening to the speaker’s complaints, says that it seems like she was “a child who had been wanted” (line 12). This statement resonates with the speaker and slowly begins to change her thinking. This is apparent from the following line where the speaker states that “I took the wine against my lips as if my mouth were moving along that valved wall in my mother's body” (line 13 to line 15). The speaker is imagining her mother’s experience while creating her and giving birth to her. In the next several lines the speakers describe what she sees. She expresses that she can see her mother as “she was bearing down, and then breathing from the mask, and then bearing down, pressing me out into the world” (line 15 to line 18). The speaker can finally understand that to her mother the world and life she currently lived weren't enough for her. The imagery in the final lines of this poem list all the things that weren’t enough for the mother. They express that “the moon, the sun, Orion cartwheeling across the dark, not the earth, the sea” (line 19 to 21) none of those things matter to the mother. The only thing that matter was giving birth and having her child. Only then will she be satisfied with her life and
Poetry in the early 19th century was a form of therapy that allowed the writer and reader to get in touch with their emotions. In the poem “To a Little Invisible Being Who is Expected Soon to Become Visible”, Anna Barbauld discusses the feelings of what it is like for a mother awaiting her unborn child. The poem is written in a third-person narrative style and the author uses many exclamation points, which suggests the urgency and emotion through the punctuation. The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABAB. The language is positive and hopeful, which helps form an inclusive tone of romance. Likewise, the poem is broken into nine quatrains which aids in the depiction of the mother carrying a child for nine months in her womb.
The author wants readers to look deeper into the story so he adds metaphors. For example in the story the author adds a metaphor about how the children reacted when the sun appeared, “they put their hands up to that yellowness and that amazing blueness and they breathed of the fresh, fresh air and listened and listened to the silence which suspended them in a blessed sea of no sound and motion.” This helps the reader understand how important the sun is o the children and how much value it has. Metaphors in this story show the value of a certain thing.
" its hard not to feel some sadness or even a feeling of injustice. All the incidents that I mentioned in the previous paragraph are among the many vivid images in this work. Brooks obviously either had experience with abortions or she felt very strongly about the issue. The feelings of sadness, remorse, longing, and unfulfilled destinies were arranged so that even someone with no experience or opinion on this issue, really felt strong emotions when reading "The Mother". One image that is so vivid that it stayed with me through the entire poem was within the third line.
Sylvia Plath uses a diverse array of stylistic devices in "Lady Lazarus," among them allusion,
Sylvia Plath’s life was full of disappointment, gloominess and resentment. Her relationship status with her parents was hostile and spiteful, especially with her father. Growing up during World War II did not help the mood of the nation either, which was dark and dreary. At age 8 Plath’s father of German ancestry died of diabetes and even though their relationship was never established nor secure, his death took a toll on her. “For Sylvia, who had been his favorite, it was an emotional holocaust and an experience from which she never fully recovered” (Kehoe 90). Since she was so young she never got to work out her unsettled feelings with him. Even at age eight, she hid when he was around because she was fearful of him. When she was in his presence his strict and authoritarian figure had left an overpowering barrier between their relationship. Sadly enough by age eight Plath instead of making memories with her dad playing in the yard she resented him and wanted nothing to do with him (Kehoe). These deep-seated feelings played a major role in Plath’s poetry writings. Along with his “hilterian figure,” her father’s attitude towards women was egotistical and dismissive, uncondemning. This behavior infuriated Plath; she was enraged about the double standard behavior towards women. Plath felt controlled in male-dominated world (Lant). “Because Plath associates power so exclusively with men, her conviction that femininity is suffocating and inhibiting comes as no surprise” (Lant 631). This idea of a male-dominated world also influenced Plath’s writing. Unfortunately, Plath married a man just like her father Ted Hughes. “Hughes abandonment apparently stirred in her the memories and feelings she had struggled with when her ...
The poem ‘Mushrooms’, by Sylvia Plath has multiple meanings within the one poem which can be deciphered differently to give altering views. Mushrooms is a poem made up of eleven short three line stanzas and has an underlying sense of gloom throughout the poem. The poem is written in a way that it can be interpreted differently and to different levels of complexity. The most obvious meaning is the conception and ‘birth’ of mushrooms which is described in detail throughout the poem. Looking deeper, the poem is relatable to the human conception of a child through to the birth and early life. The another, more complex, way to look at the novel is in the view of Sylvia Plath from a feminist view that was taking over during the time of the writing of the novel. Mushrooms has many ways of looking at it, in which each gives a varying story.
Throughout Sylvia Plath’s life and the time period that she grew up in, it is understandable why she was always discontent with the opportunities that were offered to her as a writer. Growing up during WWII where it darkened the mood of the nation, Plath went through various periods of depression, insomnia, and suicidal thoughts, which are shown in her works (Neurotic Poets 1). In today’s literature, “her work is singled out for the intense coupling of its violent or disturbed imagery and its playful use of alliteration and rhyme” (Poets 1). While on the surface, Sylvia Plath’s poem “Tulips” discusses the contrast between the colorful and vivid bouquet and the barren, whiteness of the hospital walls, one can also explore other symbolic contrasts represented: life and death, family and aloneness.