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Features of sylvia plath poem analysis
Sylvia Plath as a poet
Analysis of Sylvia Plath
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“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. Born on October 27, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts Sylvia Plath had big dreams that quickly ended when she took her life in February of 1963. As a young writer she was eager to get her works published. The death of her father had a great affect on eight year old Plath. “...many critics note the significance of this traumatic experience in interpreting her poetry…” (Sylvia Plath). Age 19, her Junior year at Smith College, Plath attempted suicide by swallowing sleeping pills. She was then admitted into a mental institution and was given shock therapy. A year later she came back to Smith College and graduated with high honors. With receiving a scholarship to study at Cambridge …show more content…
In the poems, Childless Woman and April 18, Plath expresses her great sadness over the loss of her child. In the poem, Childless Woman, Plath goes into gory details about how that left her feeling empty and full of sadness. “... My funeral/ And this hill and this/ Gleaming with the mouths of corpses.” (Sylvia Plath 2 ). On the day of her miscarriage she felt as if she had died along with her baby. “The slime of all my yesterdays/ rots in the hollow of my skull… a future was lost yesterday…” A few months after the miscarriage she wrote a poem called April 18. Even though the tragic event did not happen on the eighteenth of April, Plath wrote about how she will never forget what happened and how she lost her
The first two stanzas, lines 1-10, tell the readers that Plath, for thirty years, has been afraid of her father, so scared that she dares not to “breathe or Achoo.” She has been living in fear, although she announces that he’s already dead. It is obvious that she believes that her father continues to control her life from the grave. She says that she “has had to kill” him, but he’s already dead, indicating her initial promise to forget him. She calls him a “bag full of God,” telling us that she considers her father a very strong, omnipotent being, someone who is superior in her eyes.
Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents were Otto and Aurelia Plath. Plath's father, Otto, immigrated to America from Germany when he was just sixteen years old. He wanted to study ministry at the Northwestern College, which was a small Lutheran school. According to his wife, Aurelia, Otto changed his ambitions because he didn't feel a true "calling" for the ministry. He received a master of the arts from Washington University, and the doctor of science from Harvard. After that, in 1928, he became a biology professor at Boston University. Sylvia's mother, Aurelia, taught German and English at Brookline High School until January of 1932, when she married Otto. She quit teaching because Otto wanted her to be a homemaker. Otto and Aurelia settled in Winthrop, a town near Boston, where Sylvia spent most of her early childhood. Aurelia's immigrant parents from Australia also lived in this town.
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.
During a time when women didn't have many rights or received much recognition, Sylvia Plath was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts on Oct. 27, 1932 (Rosenberg 10). Her parents would've never expected their daughter would one day become such a success in a male dominated profession of writing. At an early
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”.
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.
Kehoe, John. "Young, Talented, And Doomed: The Life Of Sylvia Plath." Biography 3.5 (1999): 88. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Apr. 2014.
Sylvia Plath, an innocent scarred by her memories, shares her story through her considerably dark poems. On October 27, 1932 in
Most people find Sylvia Plath’s life and work depressing, but they need to understand the pressures that she had a well known female writer in that time. Due to the many life crises that Sylvia Plath experienced throughout her lifetime, it is evident on why she wrote the way she did. Between the burden that WWII placed on the country and her own personal issues going on during her life, Sylvia Plath battled depression for many years and eventually committed suicide in 1963. Even though readers have viewed Sylvia Plath’s works as bleak, she has received much recognition for her ability as a female writer. To this day, there is controversy over her writing and legacy. A poem like “Tulips” shows her battle and struggle between life and death and her desire for solitude and escape from her family.
Born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts, Sylvia Plath was a daughter to Aurelia Schober and Otto Plath. Sylvia had to experience the tragedy of having to grow up without a father having lost him to diabetes when she was only eight years old.
How does someone that makes such an impact on poetry just end their life? Sylvia Plath was a vigorous and a praised writer of the 20th century. Plath was a talented poet before she ended her life in 1963. Although the death of Plath’s father, when the poet was eight, spurred a lifelong struggle with depression, her relationship with her father shaped her work infusing it with anger and longing. In 1956 Plath had met Ted Hughes after she was published for the first time.
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.
Death is inevitable and a lifelong process in every individual’s life. Most importantly, we are unaware of when or how it will happen and, because death can come at a time when we least expect it, it allows some individuals to fear death. In both poems, Lady Lazarus and Daddy, by Sylvia Plath, show different ways to view death. In Lady Lazarus, Plath talks about the characters attempts to commit suicide. Throughout the poem, we discover that the first time she tried to commit suicide was an accident while her second and third time were intentional. While Daddy reveals the process of how a girl came to terms with her father’s death. Although some may assert that the poems show rebirth, both poems reveal death as a way to escape from reality.
According to “Sylvia Plath” Sylvia Plath struggled with severe depression throughout her life. She first experienced depression during her third year of college because of insecurities and self-esteem issues. Furthermore, Plath’s troubled marriage with Ted Hughes fueled her depression later in life; he had cheated on her with a younger woman and left her to raise their two children. Once again, she was overcome by self-esteem issues and anxiety that led her down a dark path. Plath attempted suicide three times, and she succeeded on her third attempt at the age of thirty. She died
Sylvia Plath was one of the most recognized poets of the twentieth century. She was the daughter of Otto Plath and Aurelia Schober and the wife of fellow poet Ted Hughes. Her brilliance in poetry can be stemmed from her conflicting relationship with her parents along with her failed marriage. She began to suffer from depression and bipolar disorder as she neared her suicidal death at the age of thirty. Many believe that her mental illness is what allowed her to produce admiral writings.