Virgin In A Tree

This poem was written in 1958, after Sylvia Plath left her job at Smith College to write for a living. It was during this time she found writing extremely difficult and resorted to set themes and deliberate exercises in style, in her efforts to find a release. The poem is based on a drawing "The Virgin in a Tree" by Paul Klee. Sylvia Plath expresses her feelings about the concept of virginity, virgins etc. She holds their morals and values accountable, for what they believe to be right and what they believe to be wrong.
Sylvia Plath uses great many mythical allusions to illustrate her perceptions about virgins, especially in Ancient Greek mythology, many of which have been a direct bearing on the title of the poem; 'Virgin in a Tree'. The first most obvious allusion is that of Daphne.
'Ever since that first Daphne
Switched her incomparable back
For a bay-tree hide,'
In Greek mythology Daphne was a nymph, the daughter of the river god Peneus. She was a hunter who dedicated herself to Artemis, goddess of the hunt, and, like the goddess, refused to marry. The god Apollo fell in love with Daphne, and when she refused his advances, he pursued her through the woods. She prayed to her father for help, and as Apollo advanced upon her, she was changed into a laurel tree (Daphne in Greek). Grief-stricken at her transformation, Apollo made the laurel his sacred tree. With reference to Apollo made in the phrase; 'god-haloed'. The other phrase 'goat thighed', may signify Philocetes (Trainer of the heroes) or Pan (god of the woods). It is most obviously Pan, with evidence in future reference in the fourth stanza. Pan, in Greek mythology, was the god of woods, fields, and fertility, the son of Hermes, messenger of the gods, and a nymph. Part animal, with the horns, hoofs, and ears of a goat, he was a lusty deity, the god of the shepherds and the goatherds. A wonderful musician, he accompanied, with his pipe of reeds, the woodland nymphs when they danced. He invented this pipe when the nymph Syrinx, whom he was pursuing, objected to his advances and was transformed into a bed of reeds, enabling her to escape him.
'Celebrate Syrinx whose demurs
Won her the frog coloured skin, pale pith and watery
Bed of a reed.'
Pan then took reeds of unequal length and played on them. The god was always wooing one of the nymphs by playing on his pipes, but was always rejected ...

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'Her fingers
Stiff as twigs, her body woodenly
Askew'

Her tone throughout is very indignant, severe and at times mocking.
'How this tart fable instructs
And mocks! Here's the parody of that moral mousetrap'

'They descant on the serene and seraphic beauty
Of virgins for virginity's sake.'

'Be certain some such pact's
Been struck to keep all glory in the grip
Of ugly spinsters and barren sirs'

Plath also makes use of faint colour imagery here and there, to strengthen her ideas and give support to her literary prowess. 'White bodies' use of the colour white may signify coldness of the virgins, or their supposed purity. 'Bark's nun-black habit' the colour black may point to the restricted, non-reproachable characteristics, while the colour green ('Green virgins') indicates inexperience.
This poem is in many ways a social commentary, by Sylvia Plath, on the dilemmas modern society is faced with. Especially concerning roles of women as nurturers, mothers, wives and daughters. As well as their role in being virgins. Sylvia Plath definitely does not believe strongly in woman's role as a virgin, whether it be for purity or chastity's sake.