Sylvia Plath Research Paper

Sylvia Plath’s poetry has the capability to reflect her troubled, yet fascinating outlook on life. Paradoxically, despite brimming with overpowering emptiness and personal hardship, her poetry is effortlessly magnificent. Some occasional incandescent light shines through as she contemplates the redemptive power that her writing and inspiration has on her bleak, melancholic life. However, Plath’s immense suffering due to her total neutrality, her fragmented mind, and the feelings of inadequacy she experienced, ultimately led her to succumb to her inner demons. I am going to discuss the powerful language that reflects the complexity of Plath’s mind in relation to: “Black Rook in Rainy Weather”, “Poppies in July”, “Child”, “Elm”, and “Mirror”.

Having been written at a time when Plath was consumed with the trauma of her husband’s infidelity, “Poppies in July” exquisitely depicts the deep depression Plath endeavoured for many years. The uneasy sense of foreboding is expertly expressed with the balance of short and long lines in unrhymed couplets, and careful punctuation, along with the contrast of the stark last line, “But colorless. Colorless”. In addition, Plath’s overpowering weariness is prominent with the use of broad vowel sounds, such as “bloodied”, and “exhausts”. It appears that she is so exhausted and numb that she has transcended pain and can experience nothing, “It exhausts me to watch you”. Plath’s disorientated state has led her to see two ways out of this numbing depression: experiencing intense physical pain or slipping into a blissful drug-induced trance, “If I could bleed, or sleep!”. The use of soft sibilance sounds further emphasise her longing for complete oblivion, “Where are your opiates, your nauseous capsules?”. In addition, Plath’s distressed state is evident in her startling, haunting images. The image of the poppy would lead readers to expect a more conventional nature poem. Instead, the flowers are presented as being highly treacherous, and even more deceptive because they are “little”. The

At first, the tone of Plath’s poem, “Child”, is hopeful and shows the poet’s emphatic appreciation of childhood, “Your clear eye is the one absolutely beautiful thing”. The vigorous rhythm and animated rhyme in the phrase “The zoo of the new” are imaginative, capturing the sense of youthful wonder. In addition, Plath associates her child with a precious “April snowdrop”, which depicts the child as vulnerable and fragile. I was particularly taken with the musical effect of the assonance in this phrase, which is similar to that of a soft lullaby. Particularly moving, however, is the juxtaposition in the final stanza between the colourful, bright world of the child and the dark despair of the poet in her flawed world. It succinctly captures Plath’s unsteady mental state. The final images are stark and powerful- the pathetic “Wringing of hands” gives emphasis to her helplessness. The last line poignantly portrays the paradox of the tension between Plath’s dreams for the child in the face of the despair she feels about the oppressive world: this “Ceiling without a star”. Alongside Plath’s anxiety surrounding her child’s future, is the great mental anguish caused by her insecurities as a woman, as seen in “Mirror”. The personification of the mirror has a sinister effect as the mirror describes an