ipl-logo

Sylvia Plath's Poem 'Tulips'

1123 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Conflicts in sylvia plaths poetry

Poetry, for me, is a release, a chance to explore complex emotions and delve into themes that go undiscussed in everyday life. Reading and analyzing writing to find a concealed meaning provides me a welcome distraction from reality. It allows me to both lose and find myself in the work. I admire and gravitate to poems that examines darker themes, but can still be enjoyed purely for their lyrical language. For these reasons, I am fond of Sylvia Plath’s poem, “Tulips”, due to the disparity between what is depicted and what is implied. In the poem, a stay at the hospital transforms into a conflict comprised of existential dread with the introduction of seemingly innocent red tulips. Plath, with her skillful use of language, imagery, form, and tone, crafts a captivating world of beauty and despair around the reader without ever disrupting their …show more content…

“Tulips” is written in free form and first person narrative to produce a flowing narrative. I have direct access to the narrator’s thoughts and emotions and am free to make my own interpretations based on the information provided. In this case, I am fully immersed in the narrator’s world, where she is alone in her hospital room with the tulips. Though there are other characters obviously present in the poem, such as the “nurses”, “anesthetist”, and “doctors” (Plath, line 6-7), the narrator depicts them as insignificant, mere objects from the narrator’s point of view when she describes the nurses are numerous and identical (Plath, line 13-14), thus making it impossible to distinguish any memorable qualities. The only other seemingly “living presence”, a significant and threatening one, are the tulips, that “eat” and “breathe” (Plath, line 37, 49). Through first person narrative, I can view the world from the narrator’s point of view, giving me a greater understanding of why she views the tulips in a hostile

Show More
Related
681 Words | 3 Pages

1. Several motifs in the first pages of this chapter present a real sense of theater: 
 •Mr. Smith flapping his wide blue wings on the roof of Mercy Hospital •Red velvet rose petals spilled in the snow
•The woman (Pilate) singing the song, “O Sugarman” 
They will reappear frequently in the novel. What contrasts do they present to the world Macon Dead would like to build? 


Read More
1274 Words | 6 Pages

The essence of great poetry lies with the author’s ability to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Most poets use universal themes to connect their audience through emotion and experience, making the written theme relatable. But it is only when combined with the use of carefully placed literary techniques that this connection is enhanced and the work transforms from simple words on paper to an art form. Gwen Harwood uses a number of her poems to connect us with the universal journey from childhood innocence to experience and adulthood. Harwood also weaves the idea of memory into her writing, as a way to trigger emotion through a connection to the past, a connection to feelings that transcend through time.

Read More
1669 Words | 7 Pages

The first person point of view allows the reader to understand John’s thoughts, emotions, and opinions, which shows the level of impact that each event

Read More
1147 Words | 5 Pages

Any less the black man who/bit my pretty red heart in two.” (Plath) This is another great example of imagery in this story because, it makes you think about an evil person committing a crime. However, she’s actually talking about how she felt when her father was mean to her. The words Sylvia Plath use’s in this poem are dark and they make you feel a sense of fear throughout the whole poem.

Read More
742 Words | 3 Pages

He could imagine his deception of this town “nestled in a paper landscape,” (Collins 534). This image of the speaker shows the first sign of his delusional ideas of the people in his town. Collins create a connection between the speaker’s teacher teaching life and retired life in lines five and six of the poem. These connections are “ chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard,” which compares images that the readers can picture.

Read More
750 Words | 3 Pages

Love became resentment; empathy turned into ignorance– the truth she sought dearly was the blurred bullet she feared most. Lily’s route of vicissitude reveals the hammering swarm of stings the truth brings– especially when unprepared to face its facts. Curiosity nurtures like a bee pollinating a flower, but peeking too much will only bring a deadly bouquet of lilies to your

Read More
707 Words | 3 Pages

The idea that hardships may bring out of someone something they did not know they had within them is something that many people believe. American culture is one that admires resolve in the face of hardship as we believe that is when someone shines that most. However adversity does not always bring out something that was not being shown before but rather gives a new direction to talents that someone already has. Adversity may push some to recognize talents they did not they had, like for example taking an advance class in a subject they did not like but finding they are talented in understanding the subject.

Read More
808 Words | 4 Pages

The surgical operation he had gone in his forehead makes him lose his status as a hero in the emotional reaction of despair as other prisoners watch. In analyzing this poem, the main point of focus is that the poet achieves a contemplative mood by listing surface events that are emotional in nature. Looking at the structure of the poem first, the poem has 42 lines or sentences. Most of the sentences are complicated with the poem employing the use of verb-nouns in a normal way. The poet also includes some enjambment, some end-stopped lines and a title that precisely explains what is going on in the poem.

Read More
846 Words | 4 Pages

Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” and Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” are similar because they focus on the same subject. However, they differ in how the speakers’ feel about their relationship with their parent(s). In Plath’s “Daddy”, the speaker is a daughter thinking about how her father treated her. She tells about how she felt trapped by him and how she tried to ‘kill’ him, line 6 of the poem, but he dies before she has a chance. The ending of Plath’s poem implies that she got married to a man like her father.

Read More
910 Words | 4 Pages

By having this story in first person point of view, it gives the readers an insight to how the narrator really feels about certain characters. It also allows the readers to view background information from the narrator, which allows the story to come together as a whole and be more

Read More
455 Words | 2 Pages

In the short story “The Flowers”, Alice Walker sufficiently prepares the reader for the texts surprise ending while also displaying the gradual loss of Myop’s innocence. The author uses literary devices like imagery, setting, and diction to convey her overall theme of coming of age because of the awareness of society's behavior.     At the beguining of the story the author makes use of proper and necessary diction to create a euphoric and blissful aura. The character Myop “skipped lightly” while walker describes the harvests and how is causes “excited little tremors to run up her jaws.”. This is an introduction of the childlike innocence present in the main character.

Read More
524 Words | 3 Pages

Alice Walker uses imagery and diction throughout her short story to tell the reader the meaning of “The Flowers”. The meaning of innocence lost and people growing up being changed by the harshness of reality. The author is able to use the imagery to show the difference between innocence and the loss of it. The setting is also used to show this as well.

Read More
1181 Words | 5 Pages

In the poem ‘Tulips' by Sylvia Plath, the theme of isolation is presented throughout the poem. The speaker accentuates how disconnected she feels from the world, however she seems to embrace her isolation; it is something that she would prefer to clutch onto. The only problem she seems to have is the constant reminder that actually, in fact, she is not alone. Plath uses the imagery of tulips, which is constantly repeated throughout the poem as a symbol of isolation. The tulips can be seen to represent the love and concern that other people have for the speaker, for example her family, and that these people are there for her and that she is not alone.

Read More
1056 Words | 5 Pages

It was written when Plath’s marriage to Ted Hughes was in difficulty and she was suffering with depression. We are given an insight into the her inner feelings and trouble. She uses dark, disturbing and graphic imagery which reflects her mind at the time she was writing the poem. The state she describes is almost terrifying. The description of the poppies in the opening lines is positive.

Read More
1002 Words | 5 Pages

A sense of life symbols is created in, “Where the family got drinking water” (…). Myop’s jocund jaunt through the forest is described using flowery imagery and symbolism, “an armful of strange blue flowers with velvety ridges and a sweet suds bush full of brown, fragrant buds”. The strange blue flowers hold symbolic meaning as it represents Myop’s innocence, and ultimately the loss of innocence. Such an exploration of the confronting nature of discoveries seeks to evoke a sense of empathy and reflection in the audience (this can be a link to the next paragraph) An individual’s perception of the world can be shattered by unexpected provocative discoveries.

Read More

More about Sylvia Plath's Poem 'Tulips'

Related Topics

Open Document