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Sylvia Plath Poetry Comparative Essay

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DEAD POETS’ SOCIETIES More than 50 years ago, Plath and Angelou documented the dominance of the patriarchy in their lives and empathised with an entire demographic. Confronting the fact that these poems are still the epitome of retaliation against the sexism and misogyny raises a very confounding question. Have we really progressed from the past? When it comes to looking at the facts, women in the 21st century suffer because of male dominance in areas such as the workplace, politics, sports, media and even basic human rights. We’ve been compressed beneath the weight of copious social expectations and have been morally disrespected and seen inferior. Still I Rise and Daddy, Maya Angelou’s and Sylvia Plath’s more renowned pieces, …show more content…

Women of today’s society should follow their example. Maya Angelou proudly embraces her culture, her body image, cause she says that “…I dance like I’ve got diamonds; at the meeting of my thighs.” Out of the huts of history’s shame, she defies all and denies all as she finally establishes her empowerment and rights. Her use of simile throughout the text and the extended metaphors in each of the stanzas not only create a sense of pride but it enhances her own qualities. “I am a black ocean, leaping and wide; Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.” is an accurate representation of Angelou’s strength, something which all women should pursue in emulating. Sylvia Plath takes an even more morbid but equally potent stand against the ghost of her father and her husband “So daddy, I’m finally through; The black telephone’s off at the root; The voices just can’t worm through…If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed two——; The vampire who said he was you…” and also by using metaphor by calling her perpetrators monsters and silencing them forever by the force of her own will, she achieves a state of freedom within herself and society. Her triumph is expressed in her final line, “Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m

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