Sylvia Plath's Words for a Nursery

1761 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Recurrent themes of sylvia plaths poetry

Sylvia Plath's Words for a Nursery

Sylvia Plath’s “Words for a Nursery” depicts the embodiment of life through the symbolism of a human hand. Referring to the hand many times throughout various works(“Mirrors”, “Tulips”, “Lady Lazarus”, etc), Plath continually portrays this feature as a bodily tool around which life functions. After becoming pregnant with her first child, Plath’s analysis of the progression of life from birth to death can be seen within such a poem. Like most of her poetry, “Words for a Nursery” escalates in a positive manner until the end where death is expressed, and a sense of pessimism is briefly felt. As she suggests, life begins with the opening of the hand, the first action which will lead to eventual awareness of the world. Through her analysis of the detailed elements of the hand, and her emphasis on its ability to learn its role, Plath examines the phases of life by expressing a new stage within each stanza. From birth, through life, and finally to old age and death, Plath draws upon a series of images to metaphorically describe human existence in life’s endless cycle.

Throughout “Words for a Nursery”, Plath uses various stylistic devices to relate the human hand to the progression of life. With the whole poem existing as an extended metaphor, the author encourages a reader to interpret and search for meaning. As Plath opens with “Rosebud, knot of worms”, the beginning of human life is seen. The baby’s crunched fist is a “rosebud”, it’s fingers a “knot of worms”.

Continuing, we read “Heir of the first five / Sharpers; I open”. Here, readers infer that with the opening of the child’s five fingers, life begins. Although Plath does not directly state this meaning, her creativ...

... middle of paper ...

...eased comprehension of life and its cycle. Since Plath uses the first person point of view to describe life as an experience, her accepted wisdom creates a natural style. She understands life to be a cycle, where even in death, life of another (in this case the “thin crows”) continues. Although pessimism toward death is evident, Plath regards life as a progression. The hand opens to allow life to begin, learns its function, and remains active until it reaches old age, where it then becomes weak and eventually dies. Through such a beautifully written metaphor, a reader learns that life is a continual development up to the time of death. From the origin to decease of individual life, the hand, just like the human, experiences growth. From thistle to silk, and rosebud to rose, life is a road of unforeseen events, all paths leading to the progression of existence.

Show More
Related

  • 'Conformity In Sylvia Plath's Initiation'

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the short story “Initiation” author Sylvia Plath suggests that conformity, although the societal norm, is not always as grand as it is made out to be, while also suggesting that even though conformity typically hinders one’s self growth, there are times when the fear of conforming can make one’s sense of self stronger. These two ideas together show that Plath uses this short story to convey the message that even though conformity is not inherently a positive thing, it can drive a person to look in on themselves and develop a unique identity. Plath uses symbolism, and character introspection to assert this idea.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of Millay's Poem, Renascence

    784 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although this section is the easiest to read, it sets up the action and requires the most "reading between the lines" to follow along with the quick and meaningful happenings. Millay begins her poem by describing, in first person, the limitations of her world as a child. She links herself to these nature images and wonders about what the world is like beyond the islands and mountains. The initial language and writing style hint at a child-like theme used in this section. This device invites the reader to sit back and enjoy the poem without the pressure to understand complex words and structure.

    Read More

  • Extended Metaphor, Utilized by Anne Bradstreet and Robert Frost

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the poems “The Author to Her Book” by Bradstreet and “The Road Not Taken” by Frost, the themes share a similarity of their speakers’ lives. While Bradstreet focused on the speaker’s writing, Frost based his poem on the speaker’s choices in life. The main focus of “The Author to Her Book” is the writing referred to as her “Book” in the title and the speaker as the “Author”. The narrator’s work of literature are compared to a child through several metaphors. Bradstreet began with “Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain, Who after birth didst by my side remain”(Bradstreet) to show how the speaker compared the literature as her “offspring” that she gave “birth” or actually wrote and like a helpless child, stayed with her to be cared for. Therefore the speaker would continually review her writings flaws or “ill-formed” behavior. Anne Bradstreet focused her poem on writing literature through the speaker’s perspective of the countless imperfections. Robert Frost’s theme of “The Road Not Taken” is vaguely similar with the speaker’s life as the main focus. The speaker goes on with his life till h...

    Read More

  • Audre Lorde

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    The speaker uses “legs” and “towers” to show her reader the opening of her child’s new beginning in life. The speaker then includes “new World was passing” to include how her child was going to be creating new identities in her by her birth and development. Thus, as part of a human being into a world there will be new creations of identities so this is where her child will be developing her/himself as opposed being in the speaker’s fetus. Here the speaker brings up an interesting symbolic figure by the use of “passing” since it relates back to the earlier part of the poem in relationship to time. In lines one and seven the speaker speaks of the time being of her child’s pregnancy process which illustrates the “passing” in line seventeen to demonstrate all the identities she will come upon as the her child moves forth into the world as she continues to distinguish this possibility of her own

    Read More

  • Bradstreet's The Author to Her Book

    404 Words  | 1 Pages

    The first effect of the birth imagery is to present the speaker's book as a reflection of what she sees in herself. Unfortunately, the "child" displays blemishes and crippling handicaps, which represent what the speaker sees as deep faults and imperfections in herself. She is not only embarrassed but ashamed of these flaws, even considering them "unfit for light". Although she is repulsed by its flaws, the speaker understands that her book is the offspring of her own "feeble brain", and the lamentable errors it displays are therefore her own.

    Read More

  • Spring Violets Analysis

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    We’ve all wondered and wracked our brains over the questions and nature of humankind, to which we have no true and final answers: how every moment lived and this moment you live right now, will simply be a memory, the daunting inevitability of death, life’s transience, the irreversibility of time, the loss of innocence with ages…it is in the human condition to question such things; and this mutual similarity in wonder, to me, is beautiful. I intertwine these universal topics into my poetry, particularly Father & Child and the Violets, to transcend time and provide meaning to a range of different contexts, whilst reflecting my own context and values.

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Individuality In Sylvia Plath's Initiation

    953 Words  | 2 Pages

    There is no shortage of media encouraging adolescents to ‘be themselves’, promoting self-worth regardless as to what others think. While many may be fed this message throughout music and film, rarely ever is it conveyed to actually have a lasting effect on one’s personal views quite like Sylvia Plath’s “Initiation”. Although formulaic, Plath’s uniquely optimistic short story warns against an obsession with belonging, and explores the importance of individuality through the protagonist Millicent Arnold’s gradual character development, from a self-conscious teenage girl to a stronger and more confident individual.

    Read More

  • An Explication of Sylvia Plath8217s 8220Daddy8221

    974 Words  | 2 Pages

    It tends to be the trend for women who have had traumatic childhoods to be attracted to men who epitomize their emptiness felt as children. Women who have had unaffectionate or absent fathers, adulterous husbands or boyfriends, or relatives who molested them seem to become involved in relationships with men who, instead of being the opposite of the “monsters” in their lives, are the exact replicas of these ugly men. Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy” is a perfect example of this unfortunate trend. In this poem, she speaks directly to her dead father and her husband who has been cheating on her, as the poem so indicates.

    Read More

  • Sylvia Plath Comparison Analysis

    764 Words  | 2 Pages

    In American society, the common stereotype is that the father has the role of the dominant figure in the household. Sylvia Plath and Sharon Olds may come across as two seemingly different poets, however, they are really quite similar, especially in their driving forces behind their writing styles in poetry. The lives of Plath and Olds are both expressive of the realities of a father-dominated family, in which both of these poets lost their fathers at a young age. This is significant because both poets have faced a similar traumatic event that has had everlasting effects on their adult womanhood, which is reflected in their writings. For both these woman, their accesses to father-daughter relationships were denied based on life circumstances. Ironically, their fathers were their muses for writing and are what made them the women they are today.

    Read More

  • Sorrow Of Sorrow

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the process of growing up, we are taught to believe that life is relatively colorful and rich; however, if this view is right, how can we explain why literature illustrates the negative and painful feeling of life? Thus, sorrow is inescapable; as it increase one cannot hide it. From the moment we are born into the world, people suffer from different kinds of sorrow. Even though we believe there are so many happy things around us, these things are heartbreaking. The poems “Tips from My Father” by Carol Ann Davis, “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith, and “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop convey the sorrow about growing up, about sorrowful pretending, and even about life itself.

    Read More

  • Sylvia Plath and Her Poetry

    1353 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • To a Little Invisible Being Who is Expected Soon to Become Visible by Anna Barbauld

    912 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Anne Sexton: S Emotional Journey In Sylvia's Death

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sexton compares Plath’s suicide to an old belonging in the couplet, “what is your death but an old belonging” (54-55). The couplet serves to convey that the speaker is moving past the initial shock of her friend’s death. The comparison of Plath’s death to an old belonging implies that the speaker used to have a strong emotional attachment and understanding of Plath’s suicide, but now, it is more of a memory that lingers than something that consumes her mind every day. Even so, the death of Plath still impacted the speaker on a deep level because Plath’s death involuntarily forced her to contemplate and to reflect on her own emotions and thoughts on suicide. She experiences an emotional journey that places her on the other end of the death in which she once fantasized. The term “old belonging” illustrates how the speaker previously dreamed and longed for death. However, after experiencing the emotional toll of being on the other side of the death that she once coveted, she reconsiders her desires. The tone has shifted from one of mourning and envy to something that she used to desire, an “old belonging” (55). The sharp left turn that is transmitted in the speaker’s tone articulates the emotional journey she has endured. Therefore, the relation of Plath’s death to an old belonging displays how the speaker no longer wants that death, but she still remembers what it feels like to be the person with thoughts of

    Read More

  • The Paradoxical Relationship

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy” emphasizes the ill-fated relationship between a woman and her deceased father. The speaker conveys her paradoxical feelings for the one man who she worshipped during her young years, but feared his malicious influence and domination after his death. “I used to pray to recover you” and “at twenty I tried to die… and get back… to you” ( line 14, 63-64). Throughout the poem, Plath uses simplistic language, rhyme, and rhythm in order to charm and delay the malevolent spirits from her father.

    Read More

  • Sylvia Plath's Life and How It Influenced Her Poetry

    1847 Words  | 4 Pages

    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 ...

    Read More

More about Sylvia Plath's Words for a Nursery

Open Document