English Essays

Poetry: Sylvia Plath

Plath makes effective use of language to explore her personal experiences of suffering and to provide occasional glimpses of the redemptive power of love. Discuss this with reference to Plath's poetry.

The absolute control which Plath has over her work, her unique use of imagery, and her effective use of language provides us with an insight into her personality and her state of mind. Plath also offers us with occasional glimpses into the redemptive power of love, which is why I find her poetry so intriguing and unique.

Plath's poetry reflects her troubled, yet fascinating outlook on life. Paradoxically, despite brimming with overpowering emptiness and dark emotions, her poetry is effortlessly beautiful due to her use of language. An occasional glimpse of hope or light shines through her poetry and reminds her of love, as she methodically contemplates nature. This is evident in her poem, "Pheasant," where she explores her personal experience of witnessing the extraordinary event of a pheasant appearing near her home. The appreciation and love Plath has for nature is expressed effectively through her imagery, as she describes the bird as a, "Little cornucopia," and energetically notes that,"A dozen would be worth having / A hundred...a fine thing!" Through this, her enthusiasm for life and nature is obvious. Despite her poetry being well known for her personal suffering, this poem is much the opposite. However, the last line of the poem snaps us back to Plath's psychological struggles, with, "I trespass stupidly. Let be, let be," In her mind, she completely ruins the perfect beauty of nature that is represented by the pheasant, and as a result, this life-changing moment is short lived. In this particular poem, Plath views nature as the redemptive power of love, yet, unfortunately, by the end of the poem, her troubled psyche regains control over her.

The tone of, "Pheasant," is similar to that of, "Morning Song," firstly alarmed, but is in fact celebratory. Plath feels some sort of affinity with the bird and is protective over it, "Do not kill it," Plath continues to provide occasional glimpses of the redemptive power of love through her poetry, especially in those where she explores her personal experience of motherhood. Just as it is her instinct too protect the pheasant, she also instinctively, "Wakes to listen," to her child, as it has fundamentally changed her life. Her love for her child has a redemptive quality, however, she honestly expresses through effective imagery that she feels somewhat distant. "I'm no more your mother / Than the cloud that distils a mirror to reflect its own slow effacement," Although Plath loves her child, she see herself in this child, and this fills her with dread, so much so, that she feels as if she is fading away and being replaced. Plath describes herself in an unflattering and self-deprecating way, "Stumble from bed, cow-heavy," This harsh language provides us with an insight into her personal experiences of suffering, and leaves the reader with the idea that the redemptive power of love does not last.

Often, the language in Plath's poetry can be as disturbing as it is beautiful, but is always effective. In, "Child," for example, the poet uses assonance to capture the sound of a child's speech, "I want to fill it with color and ducks / The zoo of the new," The use of enjambment creates a gentle, lilting momentum. The child in the poem is one of the occasional glimpses Plath provides into the redemptive power love has. To Plath, the child represents the most beautiful thing nature can produce, comparing it to an, "April snowdrop, Indian pipe," However, in the final stanza, Plath uses assonance to create a far darker tone, juxtaposing the happiness that motherhood brings. The repetition of broad vowel sounds, such as, "Troublous," "Dark," and, "Star," creates a brooding, gloomy atmosphere. Furthermore, the sibilance present in the final stanza adds an almost menacing feeling to the poem, which suggests Plath's troubled personal experiences.

Similar to the way Plath uses motherhood to occasionally reveal the redemptive power of love, she uses nature to communicate this in her poem, "Black Rook in Rainy Weather," Plath uses the black rook as a metaphor for herself, demonstrating the extent to which she belittles herself. Through this nature imagery, she explores her own personal experiences of suffering. She addresses how she is uncomfortable, and her compulsive behaviour through the bird's actions of, "Arranging and rearranging its feathers in the rain," Plath's suffering unfolds through her tone of resignation, "Let spotted leaves fall as they fall," using language which is symbolic of her gloom and melancholy. In contrast, light imagery emerges just as she has given up hope. A glimpse of the redemptive power of love appears again, "A certain minor light may still / Lean incandescent / Out of the kitchen table or chair," This can be taken figuratively, the light representing inspiration. Even though a glimpse of hope is there, Plath remains, "Wary," She shrinks from feeling happy and from inspiration because she knows that it does not last, and that when it ends, she will feel even more disappointed and hopeless. Her surroundings, a, "Dull, ruinous landscape," evaporate her happiness. This highly imaginative vivid imagery gives the reader an insight into her suffering.

The unusual images in Plath's work are captivating and shares with us her personal experiences of suffering. Her description of the hive as, "The coffin of a midget / Or a square baby," in " The Arrival of the Bee Box," is bizarre, disturbing and strangely comical. However, images such as "African hands...Black on black, angrily clambering," are menacing and claustrophobic. This almost sinister quality that demonstrates her suffering is also present in the poem, "Mirror," There is a disturbing underlying force noticeable in this poem, with very little evidence of the redemptive power of love. Plath completely distances herself by personifying the mirror which allows herself to explore her personal experiences of suffering. The effective phrase, "She turns to those liars, the candles or the moon," implies that her love is short lived by using light imagery through sources that are not reliable.

The confessional nature of Plath's poetry allows her to explore her troubled personality. "The Arrival of the Bee Box," provides us with an interesting example of Plath's extremely candid poetry. The combination of short, one-line sentences and long run-on lines works to make the poem feel almost like a stream of consciousness. She explores her psyche through the depiction of an external event and the repetition of the personal pronoun. I feel that the bees in the box can be taken to refer to Plath's own thoughts and visions. They are maniacal, clambering and dark. She describes them as, "Dangerous' and they appal her, yet she is fascinated by them. I think that the poem reveals more about Plath's persona than it ever does about the bees. We get an insight into Plath's obsessive tendencies when she tells us that she, "Can't keep away from it," We glimpse her controlling personality when she proclaims, "I need feed them nothing, I am the owner," The only glimpse of the redemption love can give is through light imagery, "My moon suit and funeral veil," though this is the poet laughing at herself. Her chilling narrative voice is enthralling in its blunt, even cruel honesty, and this honesty is exactly how Plath explores her personal experiences of suffering.

Though several of Plath's poems provide occasional glimpses of the redemptive power of love to counteract her personal experiences of suffering, these are merely short periods of happiness in her overall unhappiness. The poet's clever, innovative, and honest language allows not only Plath, but also the reader to explore her personal experiences of suffering.