Maria Ponn Sindhuja. P
II MA English Literature
PG & Research Department of English
Holy Cross College
Trichy - 620002
Theme of Death in Sylvia Plath’s Edge and Lady Lazarus Sylvia Plath was born in Boston. Her first collection of poems, Colossus, was published in England in the year 1960 and two years later in the United States. Her marriage was a failure and Ted Hughes, her husband left her in the year 1962. In deep depression, Plath wrote most of her poems that comprised her most famous book Ariel. On 11th February 1963, Plath wrote a note to her neighbour instructing him to call the doctor. Then she committed suicide using her gas oven. Plath’s poetry is often related with the confessional movement. Although only Colossus was published when she was alive, Plath was a fertile writer, and in addition to Ariel Hughes published three other volumes of her works, including The Collected Poems, which was the recipient of the 1982 Pulitzer Prize. Death is a ubiquitous reality in Plath’s poetry and manifests in different ways. The void created by the death of her father could be seen in some of her poems. In Full Fathom Five she speaks about his death, burial and mourning. In Colossus she tries in vain to put him back together again and make him speak. In Daddy she goes further in
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Here also death is not shown as an end. It is portrayed as a challenge. The poem begins with a confident or rather accomplished tone. The poet says, “I have done it again”. This means that it not the first time the task is being done. But the task is unknown to the reader in the beginning. The title is an insinuation to the Biblical character, Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead. The interpretation of the poem suggests that it is about multiple suicide attempts. She explains how she has recovered from her suicide. However the recovery is not celebrated, rather considered being a failure. Here suicide attempts are considered as
Poetry is a voice for addressing complex ideas that humanity has contemplated for thousands of years. Poets use a variety of literary techniques and stylistic features to convey these desired ideas. A prevalent theme deliberated in many poems across genres and throughout history is death. Death is unknown, therefore exploring it through poetry attempts to alleviate some of this uncertainty. This is done in a variety of literal and figurative contexts, including hope, freedom, literal death and beauty. Illuminating death in this way helps humanity to come to terms with something often feared.
Although Plath uses atrocious examples of death and uses the rebirth of Lazarus as the basis of the poem, the underlying tone presented is
Sylvia prided herself as an amazing poet while not receiving the acclaim she wanted. The Colossus was the only major collection of poems before her death. It didn’t receive too much praise until after her death. Most of her poems dealt with her personal life like those of Daddy and Ariel. She wrote most of these poems when she was depressed, so she coped with her depression the only way she knew: writing poems. She wrote about her father, where she claimed to hate her father due to him walking out on her when she was eight. He didn’t actually leave her on purpose, as he died of complications with his diabetes. However, it made for great writing as it was critically acclaimed for it being a magnificent poem. Ariel is also series of poems known for being known as her best work in terms of poetry. The Bell Jar is
As England’s Poet Laureate, and recipient of both the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and T.S. Eliot’s prize for poetry, Ted Hughes was an acclaimed poet. The shadow of Hughes late wife, Sylvia Plath, kept Hughes stagnant in his career, in which he was known as “Her Husband” (Middlebrook). Hughes most recent collection of poems, Birthday Letters, took him over twenty-five years to write, and contains poems which recount the marriage of the couple. Hughes wrote the poems as a loving gesture towards Sylvia, but the poems were misinterpreted as “an attempt to adjust the public record in the wake of her confession and the mass of commentary which has grown up around them” (Spurr 3). Hughes incorporated into his poetry the ideals of
Sylvia Plath's poems evoke the worst of subjective fallacies. Probably some of our charged reactions are symptomatic of the times and the culture; but more of them seem to stem from the always-too-easy identification between troubled poet and what might be the tone of imagery and rhythm of the poem considered. Because Plath worked so intensively in archetypal imagery (water, air, fire as bases for image patterns, for example), many of her poems could be read as either "dark" wasteland kinds of expressions, or as the reverse, as death-by-water, salvation poems--destruction implied, but also survived, phoenix-like.
The Ariel-period poems of Sylvia Plath demonstrate her desire for rebirth, to escape the body that was "drummed into use" by men and society. I will illustrate the different types of rebirth with examples from the Ariel poems, including "Lady Lazarus," "Fever 103," "Getting There," and "Cut."
Sylvia Plath was the first person to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1982,and she is well known for her poems “daddy”. Sadly Plath committed suicide,but before she killed herself she left a note for one of her neighbors to tell them to get a doctor and when they found her she was lying in the oven with wet towels covering the door so her children wouldn't die from the gas to. Plath’s husband Hughes published most of her poems or novels that weren’t published because she had committed suicide at such an early age. It’s because of Hughes publishing her works that she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982 but she was too late for her to claim it because she was dead 20 something years or so. Plath achieved this from studying with the one and only Robert Lowwell which she made her famous Colossus
Sylvia Plath’s work is marked with her trademark style, one full of enigmatic analogies and ambiguous metaphors. Sadly though, the life of Sylvia Plath was indeed shorter than anyone expected. Nevertheless, in the thirty years Plath meandered through the world, she left an everlasting impact. Remembered as one of the most dynamic and admired poets of the twentieth century, Plath cultivated a literary community unlike any predecessor. Additionally, since a sizable portion of Plath’s work was read posthumously, her suicide brought the much needed attention to physiological illnesses. Unfortunately though, Sylvia Plath will never know the perennial impact she left from her distinguished works that have touched numerous lives.
Sylvia Plath’s style has 3 to 5 line stanzas, many poems have short lines, and very descriptive writing and vocabulary, there are many poems with rhyme, and many use punctuation for phrasing of the poems. Many of her poems are confessional poems. Plath often tells stories in a way that readers can relate. She adds rhyme throughout her poems at the right moment and pulls the reader in. Some themes that are reoccurring are emotions, anger, relationships, and death. Her poems reflect her depression and life experiences.
Sylvia Plath was only eight years old when her father died leaving her traumatized and at times emotionally void. She loved her father but hated him for leaving her. In lines 54-67, Sylvia Plath talks about her father’s death. “At twenty I tried to die/ And get back, back, back to you.” (Lines 58-59).
In fact, Sylvia Plath’s depression, her relationship with Ted Hughes, and her German roots and culture are all reflected in her poetry. One aspect of Plath's life reflected in her poetry is her depression. Plath became depressed in 1953 when she learned she had not been accepted into
It is said that without melancholy there is no art, and there is no better embodiment of that than beloved poet and author, Sylvia Plath. Often referred to as one of the most dynamic poets of the 1900’s, Plath had no limits on her expression through poetry. Her poems ranged from flowing verses on nature to unconventional commentary on the social restrictions placed on individuals. She is most known for her poetic expression of her own mental anguish, never shying away from topics of death and despair.
Sylvia Plath uses a lot of allusions in her poem “Lady Lazarus” to add a deep and ghostly meaning to the words that she uses. These biblical and historical allusions also add an extremely angry tone of voice. Ultimately, these biblical and historical allusions show her message that almost dying is an event she likes to be a part of. For example, Plath uses a historical allusion to the holocaust in the beginning of the poem. The reference to the holocaust and other things create the main tone of death.
In this essay we will look into her life through three of her poems in
Some of the dark negative emotions Sylvia Plath shares in this poem can make anyone have sympathy on her feelings. Especially, when she writes,