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Sylvia plath biography essay
Sylvia plath biography essay
Sylvia plath biography essay
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Poets often use techniques such as tone, imagery, themes, and poem structure to create a more complex view of their stance on the subject. These features can make the poem more interesting to the reader and helps to develop their story. The use of imagery in a poem can take the reader on a journey filled with sensory images that help the reader to connect with the subjects of the poems. The tone of the poem determines the mood and feelings that the reader will experience. The theme of a poem holds the true meaning and point of the poem and is explained using the above literary techniques. While “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath and “Piano” by D.H. Lawrence both contain imagery and tone to convey the poets’ common theme of the longing for the past to revive itself, the poets use different poem structures that further convey their overall message.
Both poems, “Mirror” and “Piano” have subjects that are reflecting and longing for their past to return. This longing and reflecting is considered the theme of the poems. In “Piano”, D.H. Lawrence writes of the man yearning for his past. Despite all of his yearning, he eventually realizes that it will not return. The speaker says, “…I weep like a child for the past” (12). This describes the speaker’s longing for his past to return, despite knowing that this is not possible. Similarly, in “Mirror”, Sylvia Plath the poet reflects her theme of longing for the past by using the woman viewing her aging reflection in the lake waters. The mirror views the woman and says, “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman” (17). The mirror is showing that the woman’s past of being a young girl has diminished, and what remains is the old woman she now is. Both poems share a common theme of the re...
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...ople may feel that they want to return to the past and relive moments that they cherish, despite this being virtually impossible.
Works Cited
Lawrence, D.H. "Piano.” Literature and the Writing Process. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X. Day, and Robert Funk, Linda S Coleman. Backpack ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 2010. 413.
Palth, Sylvia. "Mirrors.” Literature and the Writing Process. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X. Day, and Robert Funk, Linda S Coleman. Backpack ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice,
2010. 433.
Timpane, John. "Understanding the Tone of a Poem." Poetry for Dummies. The Poetry Center,
n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2014. < http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/understanding-the-tone-of-a-poem.html.>
"Writing Free Verse." Playing with Poetry. N.p., 16 Feb. 2004. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
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Ed. George McMichael. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000. 697-771. Davis, Sara de Saussure, p. 84.
Third Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2005.
Ed. Lynn Z. Bloom and Louise Z. Smith. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2011. 494-507. Print.
In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by the name of Langston Hughes. A well-known writer that still gets credit today for pomes like “ Theme for English B” and “Let American be American Again.”
The highly recognized female novelist and poet, Sylvia Plath, lived a hard and tragic life. Plath was diagnosed with depression, a mood disorder that causes consistent feelings of sadness, at a very young age that made her life complicated in many ways. The battle continued on when she was diagnosed with severe depression later on in life which contributed to her death. Sylvia Plath was a very successful novelist and poet in the thirty short years of her life, however, the achievements were not enough to mask her depression battle that ran and ended her life.
Society has always judged its inhabitants for its outwards appearance; not taking in to consideration how a person has a deeper part to them. When just taking the superficial into consideration, we find ourselves looking at the blemishes and not the beauty. Judgment is thrown on those whom get old, although they cannot halt times effects. Judging those that were born with defects mental or physical that are portrayed in their visible areas. All these individualities are read into more than they should be. A mirror, on the other hand, shows what is standing in front of it and nothing else. Sylvia Plath’s poem Mirror does expresses the defects within society that judges those for their presence, it will lie to make a person’s thoughts of their appearance get altered, and that a mirror is clear looking at one with what can be compared with a gods eye; perfect, but even though the mirror sees one as unadulterated time still passes.
Two of the most popular poets of the 19th and 20th centuries are Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath, respectively. These women were born nearly one hundred years apart, but their writing is strikingly similar, especially through the use of the speaker. In fact, in Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy”, she writes about her father and compares him to domineering figures, such as Adolf Hitler, a teacher, and a vampire; and in Emily Dickinson’s poem “She dealt her pretty words like blades—“, she talks about bullies and how they affect a person’s life—another domineering figure. Despite being born in different centuries, Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath are parallel in a multitude of ways, such as their choice in story, their choice for themes, and their choice of and as a narrator.
Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2003. 600-605.
By using onomatopoeia, description, and dialogue each poet argues their subject or theme. Although each poet does not write about the same subject or theme they each use the literary device effectively to help support their poem. By using each literary device in different context the poets show the many different styles when writing poetry. Each poet uses the literary devices efficiently to help their overall message in each poem.
The two poems I have chosen to explain are Piano by D H Lawrence and
of the book. Eds. James H. Pickering and Jeffery D. Hoeper. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 1027-28. Mullen, Edward J. & Co.
the theme of death. The speaker of the poems talks about the loss of a
Plath uses an intriguing personification to start off her poem as the mirror speaks as a human saying “I am a silver” and “I have no preconception” (Plath 1). A first person narrator as if the mirror is an object that express thing from an honest observation. The stanza demonstrates the goal of the mirror from the way it described itself. The objectivity of the mirror is even more accentuated in the second line when the poet writes “whatever I see I swallow immediately”. (2) Human qualities are also given to the mirror when it
The poem “Mirror” gives the perspective of a mirror and how it views itself and the world, and in turn, how the world views it. Sylvia Plath conveys her interpretation of a mirror primarily through personification and metaphorical parallels. To further her explanation, she contrasts the mirror’s own perception of itself against its perception of a woman who often visits it.
Sylvia Plath was American short-story writer, poet and novelist that was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts and died on February 11, 1963. Sylvia Plath is best known for, her books of poems, “The Colossus and Other Poems Collection” and the “Ariel Collection” of Poems.Plath’s poetry was known for its rhyme, alliteration and disturbing and violent imagery. Plath’s poetry is considered part of the Confessional movement, which became very popular in the United States during the 1950s through the 1960s. It is considered a type of poetry about “of the personal”. Confessional poems are more associated with the subject matter of sexuality, mental illness and suicide.