Selected Poems

of Sylvia Plath
Study Guide by Course Hero

different stages of Plath's life and career. Many of her most

What's Inside well-known poems such as "Ariel," "Daddy," and "Lady Lazarus"
were written during the last few months of her life and
published posthumously in 1965. For this reason there are
j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1 more poems from Plath's later career represented. Plath's
poems express confessional honesty about mental health
d In Context ..................................................................................................... 1
struggles, relationship difficulties, and creativity. Her poetry
a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 2 remains popular and influential today.

h Characters .................................................................................................. 3

k Plot Summary ............................................................................................. 5

d In Context
c Section Summaries ................................................................................. 8

g Quotes ......................................................................................................... 17
The History of Psychiatry
l Symbols ...................................................................................................... 19
The development of psychiatry began in the 1800s when the
m Themes ...................................................................................................... 20 seriously mentally ill were institutionalized and treated with
nonscientific, sometimes cruel, and mostly ineffective methods,
b Narrative Voice ........................................................................................ 21
including medications. Psychiatry only dealt with patients
whose behavior was disordered enough to require them to be
institutionalized. Neurologists treated people with less severe

j Book Basics
mental health symptoms, who were considered to have
problems with their nerves. The advent of psychoanalysis led
by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) meant
AUTHOR that less severely mental ill people were treated with
Sylvia Plath psychotherapy. This treatment focused on exploring
unconscious roots of psychological illnesses.
YEAR PUBLISHED
1953–63 Psychiatry for less severely mentally ill people grew over time
to focus on talk therapy. The more severely mentally ill
GENRE
continued to be institutionalized and often overly medicated.
Women's Studies
Psychiatry involving medication did not reach the treatment of
AT A GLANCE outpatients until the 1950s and 1960s. Policies to
American confessional poet Sylvia Plath (1932–63) wrote and deinstitutionalize the mentally ill began to dominate local and
published hundreds of poems during her life. Many were also state governments, and the population of mental institutions
published posthumously under the stewardship of her dropped severely. By the time Plath wrote her most well-known
estranged husband, English poet Ted Hughes (1930–98). The poems, the movement to deinstitutionalize the mentally ill was
21 poems selected for this guide represent work completed at in full swing.
Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Author Biography 2

creativity, depression, and motherhood in intense emotional

Women's Rights and Feminism terms. She was among several confessional poets in the
twentieth century, including her mentors Anne Sexton
in the United States (1928–74) and Robert Lowell (1917–77), who expressed
intimate, personal, and painful feelings through their work.
Feminism refers to any organized activity in support of Confessional poetry remains a central influence on
women's rights. Feminism in the United States is part of a contemporary poetry and literature today.
worldwide history that is centuries long. American movements
to attain equal rights for women in all aspects of life and

a Author Biography
society are considered "waves" of feminism.

First wave feminism involves the struggle for the right to vote.
It began with the Seneca Falls Convention (1848), an assembly
of prominent leaders in the women's rights movement. The first Childhood and Family
wave achieved the right to vote for white women in 1920 with
the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Activists like Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October
formerly enslaved religious orator and abolitionist leader 27, 1932. Plath's mother Aurelia Schober Plath (1906–94) gave
Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883) spoke out from the beginning birth to brother Warren Plath in 1935. Sylvia Plath wrote poetry
against the exclusion of women of color from the American and kept journals since childhood. Plath published her first
women's rights movement. poem at age eight. Her father Otto Emil Plath (1885–1940) was
a German immigrant who was an expert on bees. He taught at
Second wave feminism refers to women's rights movements of
Boston University where Aurelia had been one of his students.
the 1960s and 1970s. Feminism expanded its reach and
He died when Sylvia was eight years old. The experience of
included critiques of traditional family structures and gender
losing her father at a young age was a frequent topic in Plath's
roles. Second wave feminists focused on legal battles for equal
work.
pay, reproductive rights, access to childcare, and the end of
discrimination because of sex.

Plath's poetry deals with the problems second wave feminism Education and Psychiatric
tried to address. She struggled with the roles of marriage and
motherhood that are held out to women as ideal. Plath's issues
Treatment
with the dominance of both her deceased father and her
Plath published several works while still in high school, won
unfaithful husband affected her psychological health. Without
national writing contests, and in 1950 won a scholarship to
access to childcare she tried in vain to attend to both her
attend Smith College. As a college student Plath was selected
career and her family.
to be a guest editor of popular women's magazine
Mademoiselle in the summer of 1953. She spent much of the
summer in New York City working there and was able to
Confessional Literature publish several poems in the magazine. Shortly after that
experience, Plath attempted to kill herself by taking sleeping
Plath is part of a long tradition of literature meant to confess
pills. She received electroshock therapy and other psychiatric
intimate personal truths. Confessions of St. Augustine (400
treatment in a mental health facility and was able to return to
AD), in which the Christian saint Augustine (354–430 CE)
Smith College. She graduated from Smith in 1955.
recounts his early days of sinful behavior and his ultimate
religious redemption, is an early example of confessional
literature. During the Enlightenment, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Marriage, Children, and Poetry
(1712–78) published his Confessions (1782–89) which dealt in
part with intimate details of his personal life. Plath's poetry Plath moved to Cambridge, England, to study through a
expresses painful personal experiences with mental illness, Fulbright Fellowship. While in England she met English poet

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Characters 3

Ted Hughes (1930–98), with whom she had an intense and

turbulent relationship. Plath married Hughes in 1956. From 1957 h Characters
through 1958 Plath spent time in Massachusetts as an
instructor at Smith College. She studied poetry with American
poets Robert Lowell (1917–77) and Anne Sexton (1928–74)
while there and then returned to England in 1959. In 1960 Plath
The young woman speaker
published her first collection of poetry titled The Colossus and
Several of Sylvia Plath's most well-known poems are
it was well-received. During the same year, Plath gave birth to
autobiographical. The most frequent speaker in Plath's poem is
daughter Freida. Plath and Hughes' son Nicholas (d. 2009) was
a young woman dealing with love, motherhood, and mental
born in 1962.
health issues. These poems explore intense and personal
emotional experiences and refer to intimate details from
Plath's life. In "The Colossus" the young woman speaker
Motherhood, Depression, and addresses her father and considers the large role he plays in

Creative Expression her life. In "Daddy" the young woman speaker develops
strongly negative portrayals of both her father and her
By the time Nicholas was born the Hughes' marriage was husband. In "Morning Song" she addresses her newborn baby
disintegrating. Hughes left Plath for another woman and Plath and her mixed feelings about parenthood.
struggled as she attempted to manage her mental health, write
and publish poetry, and care for her two young children. In
1963 Plath published her only novel The Bell Jar. She used the
pen name Victoria Lucas rather than her own. The novel details
a fictionalized version of her experiences as an editorial intern
in New York City and her mental health treatment after she
attempted suicide. She wrote many poems during the last
months of her life, including those that make up the collection
Ariel which was published after her suicide on February 11,
1963.

Posthumous Publications and

Legacy
Hughes took charge of Plath's writings and publications after
her death which upset many of Plath's supporters. He edited
Ariel and published the collection in 1965. This collection
contains several of Plath's best known poems including "Ariel,"
"Daddy," and "Lady Lazarus." Hughes published other
comprehensive collections of Plath's work. A Hughes-edited
volume published in 1982, Collected Poems, won the Pulitzer
Prize, making Plath the first person to earn the award
posthumously. Plath's poetry is widely admired and studied
today.

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Characters 4

Full Character List Cerberus is the three-​headed

watchdog of the underworld in
Cerberus ancient Greek mythology. He ate any
person who tried to escape from the
Character Description
underworld.

The young woman speaker is a

In "Daddy" Daddy is the young woman
woman with similar characteristics to
speaker's father whose cruelty
Sylvia Plath. This speaker narrates Daddy
shapes her life. He dies when the
"Ariel," "Daddy," "Crossing the Water,"
young woman speaker is 10 years old.
"Edge," "Elm," "Fever 103°," "Lady
The young
Lazarus," "Lorelei," "Love Letter,"
woman speaker
"Mad Girl's Love Song," "Morning Jesus is the venerated leader of the
Song," "Stillborn," "The Colossus," Jesus Christian religion who lived from
"Tulips," "Two Lovers and a about 4–6 BCE to 30 CE.
Beachcomber by the Real Sea,"
"Waking in Winter," and "You're."
In "Lorelei" Lorelei is a beautiful
woman in German legend who throws
The speaker in "Edge" is a third- herself into the sea in misery over a
person detached speaker about Lorelei man who has cheated on her. The
The speaker in whom no details are given. The poem woman in the legend becomes a
"Edge" focuses on the scene developed in it dangerous siren of the sea, luring
rather than on the speaker's people to their deaths.
experiences.

The man in "Insomniac" has trouble

The speaker in "Heavy Women" is a falling asleep and can no longer rely
third-​person detached speaker about The man in
on pills for help. He cannot help
The speaker in whom no details are given. The poem "Insomniac"
examining his embarrassing moments
"Heavy Women" focuses on the characters developed again and again in his mind.
in it rather than on the speaker's
experiences.
The Virgin Mary is also known as
Mary or St. Mary. She is a central
The speaker in "Insomniac" is a third- figure in Christianity and the mother
person detached speaker about The Virgin Mary
of Jesus (c. 4–6 BCE to 30 CE), and
The speaker in whom no details are given. The poem is known through biblical references
"Insomniac" focuses on the character developed rather than the historical record.
in it rather than on the speaker's
experiences.
A mother in "Morning Song"
A mother addresses her baby and considers
The applicant in "The Applicant" is a her mixed feelings about parenthood.
The applicant man who is offered a woman's
servitude through marriage.
Sylvia Plath's father Otto Plath
(1885–1940) was a German immigrant
The baby in "Morning Song" is the who taught at Boston University in
focus of a mother who describes her Otto Plath Boston, Massachusetts. He is
The baby
love for her new baby as well as her referred to in multiple poems as
mixed feelings about motherhood. someone who strongly shaped Plath's
life.
A beachcomber in "Two Lovers and a
Beachcomber by the Real Sea" walks Ted Hughes (1930–98) is an English
A beachcomber along the shore and causes the poet with whom Sylvia Plath had an
young woman speaker to think about Ted Hughes intense and turbulent relationship.
the summer coming to an end. Plath and Hughes married in 1956 and
separated in 1962.

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Plot Summary 5

In "Waking in Winter" Plath refers to "Crossing the Water"

nurses who take care of her while she
is in the hospital. The nurses care for
The nurses The poem creates an image of the silhouettes of people on a
her but they leave quickly, causing a
sense of abandonment for the young boat on a lake. Tall, dark trees loom over them. Cold and dark
woman speaker. natural imagery suffuses the poem.

The pregnant women in "The Heavy

The pregnant
women
Women" think about the babies they
will soon give birth to.
"Daddy"
This is one of Plath's most well-known poems. "Daddy"
The woman in "The Applicant" is
explores her problematic and painful relationship with her
offered to a man as a marriage
The woman in father as well as her relationship with the man she loves who
partner. She is described as an object
"The Applicant"
and a servant who will soothe and she refers to as a "model" of her father. The poem has several
take care of the man.
connections to intimate details of Plath's life including her
multiple suicide attempts.

k Plot Summary "Edge"

"Edge" is one of the last poems Plath wrote. It begins with the
"The Applicant" image of a woman who "is perfected" in death. "Edge" offers a
glimpse into a mind preoccupied with dying.
The young woman speaker describes a woman being offered
as "a living doll" who will serve the needs of the applicant who
is a man seeking a vaguely defined position. The woman is "Elm"
referred to as "it" and treated as an object or a machine.
The young woman speaker envisions herself talking with an
elm tree about how she wants her lover to return to her. In the
"Ariel" tree's branches the young woman speaker sees a frightening
vision of her lover's face which contributes to her growing
The poem focuses on a woman riding a horse and slowly mental instability.
becoming freer and more at one with nature. She feels that her
personal issues are disappearing as she flies through the air on
the horse. "Fever 103°"
The young woman speaker retells the emotional struggle
"The Colossus" experienced while she is physically ill and in bed. She
alternately describes herself as delicate and dangerous. She
The young woman speaker describes a male figure who she is describes a feeling of purity that she experiences after long
trying to "put together" unsuccessfully. She describes herself periods of sickness.
as serving a submissive role to a man who takes a larger-than-
life role in her own life. The entire world is suffused with the
presence of this overwhelming father figure. "Heavy Women"
The speaker in "Heavy Women" describes pregnant women as
calm, smug, and focused on the life developing inside them.
The "heavy women" are portrayed as having a saintly air. The

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Plot Summary 6

speaker muses about the arduous winter during which the

women will give birth.
"Morning Song"
A new mother addresses her newborn baby and reflects on
her feelings of fascination and exhaustion. She reflects on the
"Insomniac" love that protects and nurtures her baby but also describes
feelings of detachment that plague her.
The speaker in "Insomniac" describes a man who suffers from
insomnia or trouble falling or staying asleep. The man in
"Insomniac" thinks fondly about the different colored pills he
used to take and how they allowed him to enjoy his evening
"Stillborn"
and then get some sleep. Now that they no longer work he is
Plath expresses a sense of responsibility for her poetry that
forced to confront his thoughts.
echoes her conflicted feelings about motherhood. Plath
creates jolting images of human and animal babies that are not
developing correctly in order to express her writing frustration.
"Lady Lazarus"
"Lady Lazarus" portrays Plath's series of suicide attempts and
how it feels to continually go through these painful
"Tulips"
experiences. Her self-deprecating approach reflects her
The red tulips in the poem punctuate a hospital stay that is
intense frustration with the cyclical nature of her failed suicide
portrayed as numb, peaceful, and white. The young woman
attempts.
speaker experiences so much anxiety that she needs an
artificially non-disturbing environment. Her inner torment is
easily disturbed by changes in the environment like the
"Lorelei" unexpected redness of tulips given to her as a gift.

"Lorelei" refers to a German legend in which a beautiful woman

throws herself into the sea in misery over a man who has
cheated on her. The woman in the legend becomes a
"Two Lovers and a Beachcomber
dangerous siren of the sea who lures people to their deaths.
by the Real Sea"
In one of Plath's early poems, the young woman speaker takes
"Love Letter" a nostalgic look back at a summer as it comes to an end. The
young woman speaker reflects on the fact that nature and time
Plath addresses a lover and describes how he has intensely
continue relentlessly, as much as people attempt to analyze it.
affected her life. She says that she feels alive now but had felt
dead before she met her lover.

"Waking in Winter"
"Mad Girl's Love Song" Plath uses imagery of cold, frozen landscapes to evoke the
emotional experiences she had while in psychiatric treatment.
The love the young woman speaker has for the person she
She portrays the frightening chaos and confusion of her
addresses is exhausting and damaging yet mesmerizing. Plath
intense episodes of mental illness, describing her experiences
uses large symbols like the moon, the sky, God, and "seraphim
with hallucinations, discomfort, and loneliness.
and Satan's men" to express how her own personal world is
overwhelmed by a person who has left and may never come
back.

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Plot Summary 7

"Widow"
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died. This poem
examines a widow's worst fear that her husband's soul is trying
to communicate with her and that she cannot sense it.

"You're"
Plath affectionately addresses a child as it grows in the womb.
Its future remains to be seen and will be determined by its
unique personality and outlook. The optimistic and nurturing
tone of "You're" is uncharacteristic of Plath's poetry.

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Section Summaries 8

The "it" that he is offered in marriage will shut his eyelids after
c Section Summaries his death. The applicant is offered a suit that is "black and stiff"
to marry, and the young woman speaker states that he will be
buried in it. Marriage for the woman is portrayed as servitude

The Applicant and fulfillment of the applicant's needs. For the applicant
marriage is a kind of death. The poem seems to suggest that
neither member of this couple would truly fulfill the other's
needs. Instead the two bring dread and suffocation to each
Summary other's lives.

The young woman speaker talks directly to a person applying

for a job or position of some kind and asks them, "Are you our
sort of person?" The young woman speaker then lists a variety
Ariel
of requirements for this. People who are damaged physically
with such features as "a glass eye, false teeth or a crutch, / A
brace or a hook" are eligible for this position. The woman in Summary
"The Applicant" exclaims to the person that unless
The poem focuses on a woman riding a horse and slowly
"something's missing" she cannot help them. The young
becoming freer and more at one with nature. At first the horse
woman speaker shifts in theme and tone and begins to offer to
and its rider are described as "stasis in darkness." Then the
help the applicant. The content shifts toward marriage. The
young woman speaker feels powerful and strong as she
young woman speaker asks the applicant if they will marry a
connects with the horse's movements. She describes herself
series of actions and items on offer. The young woman
as "God's lioness" and remarks, "How one we grow, / Pivot of
speaker offers herself and describes herself as "A living doll ...
heels and knees!" As she rides faster and faster, she compares
It can sew, it can cook ... It works, there is nothing wrong with
herself to Lady Godiva. Lady Godiva is an Anglo Saxon woman
it."
who died between 1066 and 1086. She is known for a legend
about her riding horseback covered with only her hair in

Analysis protest of taxes. The young woman speaker in the poem feels
that her personal issues are disappearing as she flies through
"The Applicant" dwells on Sylvia Plath's central theme of the air on the horse. Then she hears a sound that brings her
women's oppression in intimate relationships as well as in back to reality to some extent. Her crying child rouses her
society at large. The woman in "The Applicant" portrays herself momentarily from her vision, but it quickly "melts in the wall."
as seeking broken men to help. She strives to give of herself in The poem ends with the young woman speaker declaring
order to support a man with missing aspects of himself. The herself "the dew that flies / Suicidal" into the sun.
young woman speaker describes herself in a dehumanizing
and detached way; she calls herself "it" and a "living doll." She
is defined here through the actions she can offer to a man Analysis
through marriage and is further degraded with a description as
"Ariel" was written toward the end of Plath's life. Her later
"your last resort."
poems are well-known for their intense focus on death and
The poem begins with an inquiry about the applicant's dying. "Ariel" is spare in words and imagery; it builds up from a
brokenness but ends with the young woman speaker begging still and peaceful scene to a violent, suicidal explosion. Plath
for the applicant to marry a woman whose only role is to care pictures herself as a strong rider of a horse, becoming one
for his needs. The applicant is not expected to gain happiness with nature and shedding her daily emotional and mental
or peace through the arrangement. The poem portrays struggles. She pours herself into the riding to the point where
marriage as a necessity that both the applicant and the woman she ecstatically merges with the nature around her. At one
must endure. The young woman speaker urges the applicant point the incongruous cry of her child rouses her to thought,
that "it's your last resort. / Will you marry it, marry it, marry it." but she does not attend to the child and instead returns to her

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Section Summaries 9

fantasy about riding into the fiery and powerful sun. father Otto Plath (1885–1940) as a classical statue with "fluted
bones and acanthine hair" who is now "a ruin." The young
Plath's vision of a woman on horseback drawn to ride into the woman speaker pictures herself as protected within the
sun relates to the end of her life. She compares herself to "The father's presence as if she is inside his gigantic ear, sheltered
dew that flies / Suicidal." She feels that her very being is drawn from the wind. The entire world is suffused with the presence
toward extinction by a force greater than herself. The force of this overwhelming father figure.
becomes one with the rider as she travels "Into the red / Eye,
the cauldron of morning." The sun is portrayed as both a
powerful eye which suggests a godhead figure and as a
burning oven which suggests ending one's life through fire.
Crossing the Water
Plath identifies with the desire to ride into the sun and relates it
to the suicidal thoughts that have troubled her throughout her
life. After multiple suicide attempts Plath killed herself in 1962
Summary
by inhaling gas from an oven.
The poem begins with an image of the silhouettes of people on
a boat on a lake. The lake, the boat, and the "cut-paper people"

The Colossus are all black. The young woman speaker muses that the "black
trees ... that drink here" are so tall that their shadows cover
Canada. The poem extends the imagery of darkness and cold
as the water drips from the boat's oars. A hint of bright light
Summary enters the imagery in the form of stars and lilies. The young
woman speaker asks if her companion is "blinded by" the lilies
The young woman speaker speaks from the first person in the which she compares to "expressionless sirens." Sirens were
well-known poem "The Colossus." She describes a male figure mythological women whose beautiful singing lured sailors to
who she is trying to "put together" unsuccessfully. His their deaths. The silence of the beautiful lilies recalls an image
unruliness is described as "Mule-bray, pig-grunt and bawdy of "astounded souls" for the young woman speaker.
cackles ... It's worse than a barnyard." The young woman
speaker describes herself in a service role to the man who
takes a larger-than-life role in her life as she miserably Analysis
dedicates her life to repairing and cleaning him. The young
woman speaker cries out to her father. She affectionately says Plath paints a picture of darkness punctuated by the quiet
that he is as "pithy and historical as the Roman Forum." The thoughts and musings of two people on a boat in a lake. The
Roman Forum was the most important public meeting place in imagery refers to the nature around the two people in the boat,
Rome. It included impressive monuments and temples. as well as their inner lives. Darkness is in both of the people in
the poem as well as "in the fishes" and the rest of the natural
world.
Analysis
Their consciousness focuses on the water, the oar, the fish
The Colossus refers to an ancient wonder of the world that beneath the surface, and their own role in the scene. After a
was a giant statue of a man astride two islands. Plath uses the series of black and dark images, Plath describes blooming lilies
Colossus as a metaphor for her father who had a giant impact as stars in the water and as tempting sirens inviting seductive
on her life. She describes him as impressive and vast and thoughts of death. This juxtaposition of light and darkness
highlights her never-ending feelings of servitude in his ends the poem on an uncertain note.
presence. The young woman speaker feels tiny and considers
herself the size of an ant in comparison with her father. She
uses language that evokes the imposing majesty of ancient
Greek or Roman classical architecture and art to describe her
father. The young woman speaker describes Sylvia Plath's

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Section Summaries 10

Daddy Edge

Summary Summary
One of Plath's most well-known poems "Daddy" explores her "Edge" is one of the last poems Plath wrote. It begins with the
problematic and painful relationship with her father. The poem image of a woman who "is perfected" in death. Her death
has several connections to intimate details of Plath's life. She seems to make sense to those who observe her body. Her feet
compares her father to a Nazi and calls him a "ghastly statue." seem to suggest that they have come a long way to have
The young woman speaker notes that "I was 10 when they reached this ending. However, there is no real reason or
buried you" and states that "at twenty I tried to die / And get justification for her death. The speaker in "Edge" describes the
back, back, back to you." Instead of joining her father in death, dead woman as a "Pitcher of milk, now empty," recalling her
the poet states that she married someone just like her father. role as a mother feeding her babies. She also compares the
She describes her husband as a "model" of her father who woman to a rose closing its petals "when the garden / Stiffens
loves to torture her. This man is described as a "vampire who and odors bleed." The cold and heartless character of nature is
said he was you" who "drank my blood for a year, / Seven shown in the moon which "has nothing to be sad about, /
years, if you want to know." The poem ends with "the villagers" Staring from her hood of bone."
of her father's youth showering him with hate, "dancing and
stamping" on him.
Analysis
Analysis Plath is well-known for her death by suicide which followed
several other attempts to take her own life throughout the
The young woman speaker makes connections between the years. "Edge" offers a glimpse into a mind preoccupied with
Nazi Holocaust (1939–45) in which six million Jewish people death. The speaker in "Edge" states that the idea that she
were killed and her personal inability to express herself to her needed to die is an illusion and yet she is dead and seems
father. She identifies with the Jewish people who are sent "to "perfected" in death. She pictures herself as a dead woman
Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen" which were concentration camps who can no longer feed her children and, therefore, folds up
where men, women, and children were sent to their deaths her children back inside her body. Plath describes nature as
during World War II (1939–45). More Nazi comparisons serve unfeeling as it looks on at her life of inner misery. The moon
to build a portrait of a father who "bit my pretty red heart in seems to look without feeling at her struggles. The celestial
two." Details from Plath's life like the death of her father are body is often described as female in reference to its
woven throughout this poem, suggesting that the author may connection to tides and fertility. It observes the speaker in
be writing autobiographically. "edge" from a "hood of bone," suggesting a vision of the moon
as a skull staring down at her from the sky. Death permeates
A central theme in Plath's poetry is her negative experiences the poem both in the sense of the corpse it focuses on and in
with relationships with men. Both her father and husband are the wider natural world's indifference to human suffering.
portrayed as "fascists" and "brutes" who only serve to hurt and
use her. She addresses her father and says that her husband
finished the job that he started. Her father is portrayed as a
Nazi work boot that chafes the foot while her husband is
Elm
imagined as a vampire drinking her blood. The pain these men
cause to Plath is palpable throughout "Daddy." She blames her
suicidal tendencies at least partly on the mistreatment she
Summary
experiences at the hands of both of the influential men in her
The poem begins with the young woman speaker envisioning
life.
an elm tree and what it represents or might be "thinking." The

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Section Summaries 11

tree seems to communicate that "I know the bottom ... I know it dull, fat Cerberus / Who wheezes at the gate." Cerberus is the
with my great tap root: It is what you fear." The young woman three-headed, murderous watchdog of the underworld in
speaker pictures the tree telling her how foolish she is for ancient Greek mythology. The young woman speaker
waiting for her lover to return. The tree communicates to the expresses that "the tongues of hell" are as dull as those of
young woman speaker that love is elusive, that it is gone, and Cerberus. The young woman speaker pictures herself as "too
that she should accept this. As the young woman speaker pure for you or anyone" and alternately describes herself as
communicates with the tree, she pictures its sufferings as her delicate and dangerous.
own, envisioning a "wind of such violence" that it noisily
destroys everything in its path. The young woman speaker
reflects on her inner state of unease and compares it to a Analysis
frightening, dark animal sleeping inside the tree. The poem
ends with the young woman speaker's frightening description Plath dwells on the notion of being "pure" and states that after
of a "face so murderous in its strangle of branches." When she long periods of sickness she feels a sense of purity and even
sees her lover's face within the tree's branches it slowly drives godliness. Throughout the poem the young woman speaker
the young woman speaker into a mentally unstable state. refers to torturous physical situations and then imagines
herself transcending them. For example, the dull tongues of
hell and of Cerberus are "Incapable / Of licking clean ... the sin."
Analysis While she lives and struggles, the young woman speaker
cannot transcend the pain of her life. She imagines an
Plath's description of her silent and intense conversations with existence in which she can simply float away from her
the tree provides a glimpse into her memories of her intense depression and suffering. As she meditates on her instability
experiences during psychiatric treatment. The young woman and hurt, she addresses her lover and states that he "hurts me
speaker makes several references to medicines and poisons as the world hurts God." The young woman speaker feels on a
including arsenic, evoking an atmosphere of sickness and certain level too "pure" to deserve the indignities that her
treatment. She refers to suffering, being "scorched," and partner has visited upon her. The poem ends with the young
breaking down into pieces. She envisions herself as the tree, woman speaker's imagined ascension to heaven as the
disturbed by a rustling animal or bird that never allows her unstable, highly flammable gas acetylene. Her ascension
peace. The dark creature that sleeps within her and gives her recalls Christianity's Virgin Mary. She says that she "may rise"
no reprieve may be a reference to the instability and as "a pure acetylene / Virgin," evaporating into the air.
depression that plagued Plath's life. The constantly rustling
sense of unease is replaced by terror as the young woman
speaker sees her lover's face in the branches of the tree as a Heavy Women
monstrous vision. She recreates the face with terror,
describing its "snaky acids" and how seeing it "petrifies the
will."
Summary
The speaker in "Heavy Women" describes pregnant women
Fever 103° who are "irrefutable" and "beautifully smug." Each of the
women possesses a "weighty stomach" and a face that "floats
calm as a moon or a cloud." The poem portrays these women
Summary as naturally confident and happy. The pregnant women are
described as "smiling to themselves" as they "meditate
Plath retells the emotional struggle she experienced while devoutly" and focus on the new life within them. The life the
physically ill and in bed. The young woman speaker shares women nurture is contrasted with "the axle of winter" which is
details about her pain and discomfort, like the heaviness of the "far off" and will bring the birth of the baby.
bedsheets. Eating or drinking becomes impossible. Even bland
foods and water make her vomit. She pictures the "tongues of

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Section Summaries 12

helpful. Plath explores a frequent theme of losing oneself to

Analysis medication in an attempt to escape mental and emotional
suffering. The man thinks fondly about the different colored
The speaker in "Heavy Women" describes the women "doing
pills he used to take and how they would allow him to enjoy his
nothing in particular" while achieving a sense of sainthood. The
evening and then get some sleep. The pills once impressed
evening light that settles around the women is described as
and delighted him as "sugary planets." They now seem "worn-
"Mary-blue." The Virgin Mary is the mother of Jesus the
out and silly, like classical gods." The multiple gods of ancient
venerated leader of the Christian religion who lived from about
times were supplanted in the western tradition by religious
4–6 BCE to 30 CE. The metaphor of Mary and baby Jesus
views that centered on one all-powerful God. Like the ancient
continues with the image of "the axle of winter" that "grinds
Greek pantheon of gods, the pills' once intimidating powers are
round." The story of Jesus's birth involves Mary looking for a
severely diminished. Now that the pills no longer work, the man
place to give birth on a cold winter night. Mary places baby
in "Insomniac" is forced to confront his thoughts which turn to
Jesus in a manger or open trough for feeding animals because
embarrassing moments in his youth and missed opportunities
it is the only warm and safe place that is available. Wise men
for love in his more recent past. He sees the rest of the city as
follow a star to find baby Jesus so they can worship him. In the
brainwashed and zombie-like, projecting his misery onto others
poem the winter is "far off" but soon will be "bearing down with
surrounding him.
the straw, / the star, the wise gray men." Winter represents a
time that is harsh to survive and the women realize that it is
their arduous responsibility to give birth and protect their
babies from the elements. Mary is commonly portrayed in
Lady Lazarus
literature and art as a life-giving mother figure that relates to
the everyday women's experience of pregnancy and
consideration of future childbirth. Summary
"Lady Lazarus" portrays Plath's series of suicide attempts and

Insomniac how it feels to continually go through these painful

experiences. Beginning with "I have done it again. / One year in
every ten / I manage it," the young woman speaker connects
her desire to die with imagery of Nazis and their Jewish victims.
Summary The Nazis perpetrated some of the worst crimes against
humanity in history during the Holocaust (1939–45). The Nazis
The speaker in "Insomniac" describes a man who suffers from
came to power in Germany in 1933. Beginning in 1939 they
insomnia or trouble falling or staying asleep. Imagery is used to
used death camps with gas chambers to kill six million Jews
represent the frustration the man feels. He is described as
and millions of other men, women, and children who they
trying to sleep on a "desert pillow" known as sleeplessness.
considered ethnically or politically undesirable. The young
The desert is full of "fine, irritating sand" that goes on forever.
woman speaker addresses someone as "my enemy" and asks
The man in "Insomniac" replays upsetting scenes from his
them, "Do I terrify? / The nose, the eye pits, the full set of
youth in his mind. While medications helped him in the past, the
teeth? / The sour breath / Will vanish in a day." The young
man is now "immune to pills." He pictures the people of the city
woman speaker matter-of-factly lists her suicide attempts. The
waking up and going to work "in rows" like they are
first when she was 10 years old "was an accident." Her next
"brainwashed."
attempt was a serious one in which "I meant / To last it out and
not come back at all." The young woman speaker memorably
states that "Dying / Is an art, like everything else. / I do it
Analysis exceptionally well." Plath returns to Holocaust imagery when
she says that the only things that will be left after her death are
"Insomniac" portrays the common experiences people have
"Ash, ash ... a cake of soap, / A wedding ring, / A gold filling."
when they cannot fall asleep. The man in "Insomniac" had once
She tells a dominating man who she compares to Adolf Hitler
been able to find solace in medications but they are no longer
(1889–1945) the Nazi dictator to "beware." She also compares

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Section Summaries 13

the man she is warning to both God and Lucifer, the fallen and fantasizes about the world represented by the sirens
angel of Christian lore who becomes Satan the leader of evil under the sea. In the poem the siren's song is "maddening" and
spirits and the enemy of God. "ice-hearted," suggesting "drunkenness of the great depths."
The young woman speaker is attracted to the force
represented by the underwater sirens, "those great goddesses
Analysis of peace." She addresses them directly and asks them to "ferry
me down there."
"Lady Lazarus" contains multiple approaches to discussing the
core theme of many of Plath's poems, her desire to die. She
begins by making controversial connections between her Analysis
personal emotional pain and the deaths of millions of Jews in
gas chambers in the Holocaust. Some critics consider it Plath returns to the theme of her desire to die as she connects
provocative or inappropriate to compare the immense scale of with a folk legend. Plath had split from her husband as a result
the crimes against humanity represented by the Holocaust of his affair with another woman. Lorelei is a mythical woman
with one's personal struggles with mental health. Later in the who kills herself in misery after discovering her husband's
poem Plath uses an almost comical tone at times to describe unfaithful activities and is able to take revenge on men in
her experiences with mental illness and her obsession with general by luring them to their watery deaths. Plath pictures
trying to kill herself. She adopts the words of a carnival barker death as peaceful and wishes that she could join the "great
announcing "Gentlemen, ladies" before a show that features a goddesses of peace" under the water. She addresses the
"big strip tease" where her bandages are unwrapped. Lazarus goddesses as "sisters," identifying with their stony silence even
is a figure from the Christian bible who dies and is brought as it disturbs her. Plath begs the sirens to "ferry me down
miraculously back to life. Plath seems to imply that she on there," revisiting her frequently stated strong desire to kill
some level dies and comes back to life when she herself. She is drawn to fall into the water like a heavy stone,
unsuccessfully attempts suicide. The young woman speaker is hoping that she will finally find peace in death.
disappointed and humiliated each time that she makes a
"theatrical / Comeback in broad day / To the same place, the
same face, the same brute / Amused shout: 'A miracle!' / That Love Letter
knocks me out." Her self-deprecating approach reflects her
intense frustration with the cyclical nature of her failed suicide
attempts.
Summary
Plath addresses a lover and describes how he has intensely
Lorelei affected her life. She states that it is "not easy to state the
change" that the lover caused in her life. The young woman
speaker says that she feels alive now but felt dead before she
Summary met her lover. She says that she was once a rock sitting firmly
in place "unbothered" by her inertia. Now she describes herself
"Lorelei" refers to a German legend in which a beautiful woman as a rock that is fully upturned and moved so that it sees the
throws herself into the sea in misery over a man who has world in a new way. By the end of the poem the young woman
cheated on her. The woman in the legend becomes a speaker is ascending from earth, changing "from stone to
dangerous siren of the sea, luring people to their deaths. The cloud" and "floating through the air."
mythical woman is named after a giant rock on the shore of the
Rhine River in Germany. The poem begins with the young
woman speaker looking at the water and feeling drawn to the Analysis
images it reflects. She sees a castle and imagines its turrets
and windows. The young woman speaker dreams of a world Plath's marriage is a frequent topic of her poetry. Though her
that is clearer and richer than the one she currently inhabits marriage is well-known for its strife and pain, her relationship

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Section Summaries 14

with English poet Ted Hughes (1930–98) is looked at in an unfavorably to a "thunderbird" a mythological bird in North
idyllic lens in "Love Letter" (1960). She pictures herself as American indigenous traditions that controls the weather and
inextricably bound with him in a way that changed her at her returns over the seasons. Plath would return frequently to the
core. At first she feels like a rock that is standing still and theme of a relationship that was once thrilling but is now
content to act the same way that it always has, "staying put painful and out of reach.
according to habit." When she meets her lover he moves her so
greatly that she sleeps and is transformed "from stone to
cloud." The transcendent happiness that she feels as a result Morning Song
of her love would soon be replaced by more negative
experiences as she suffered through mental health challenges,
Hughes' infidelity, and multiple suicide attempts.
Summary
The baby is addressed by its mother. The mother reflects on
Mad Girl's Love Song her feelings of fascination and exhaustion. The poem begins
with an announcement of the baby's new life which comes into
the world as a result of love. The abundant love that surrounds
Summary the baby's birth is compared to "a fat gold watch." The young
woman speaker compares the baby to a "new statue" whose
The love the young woman speaker has for the person she "nakedness / Shadows our safety." She portrays her
addresses is exhausting and damaging yet mesmerizing. Plath exhaustion when she must wake up to feed the baby in the
uses large symbols like the moon, the sky, God, "seraphim and middle of the night. The baby cries and the young woman
Satan's men" to express how her own personal world is speaker has to "stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral." The
overwhelmed by this person. In the Jewish, Christian, and baby's "mouth opens clean as a cat's." The poem ends on a
Muslim traditions, seraphim are angels who attend to God. peaceful note with the baby babbling contentedly after being
Satan is a fallen angel who becomes the enemy of God in the fed.
Christian religion. The poem ends with regret that the person
has left and may never come back. The young woman speaker
laments that she thought the person would return but as the Analysis
years go by, she does not even remember his name. The
absent person now seems like a fantasy. The young woman The young woman speaker's life is consumed with her baby's
speaker feels like the lover had only existed in her mind. vulnerability and needs. She reflects on the love that protects
and nurtures her baby but also describes the feelings of
exhaustion and detachment that plague her. She describes
Analysis herself as similar to a cow, reduced to her animal ability to feed
milk to her young. Plath portrays the mixed feelings of love,
Plath spent the summer of 1953 as a guest editor of fascination, and revulsion that characterize her experience of
Mademoiselle magazine. She later fictionalized this experience motherhood. She describes some of the sacred moments of
in her novel The Bell Jar. This early poem written in 1953 uses motherhood such as listening to her babies breathing in the
repetition and rhyme to portray intense emotions about a loved middle of the night and responding to her children's cries for
one who causes emotional pain. The young woman speaker's food. Her detachment sits alongside her description of her very
repetition of "I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead" and real experiences, telling her baby that she is "no more your
"I think I made you up inside my head" demonstrate a more mother" than is a cloud.
traditional use of rhyme which lessened in her work over time.
Her later poems avoid traditional rhyme schemes and prize
personal expression over format. The theme of a man's
outsized influence on her life is one that is repeated many
times throughout Plath's work. She compares her lover

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Section Summaries 15

history to the anesthetist and my body to the surgeons." During

Stillborn her hospital stay she lays quietly and watches the nurses go
by, waiting for them to "bring me numbness in their bright
needles."
Summary
The young woman speaker feels misery about the domestic
"Stillborn" is a poem about the frustration of writing poems. responsibilities she has left behind. She notices with dread a
Plath compares poems that "do not live" to stillborn children photograph of her husband and child. Their smiles feel like
who "grew their toes and fingers well enough" but are they "catch onto my skin" and are experienced as "little smiling
nonetheless unable to survive. The young woman speaker hooks." The young woman speaker complains that the redness
insists that the poems' failure to take full shape "wasn't for any of the tulips is like "a loud noise" and that the flowers "should
lack of mother-love." The poems "smile at" the young woman be behind bars like dangerous animals." She compares the
speaker, yet they are not developing correctly, with lungs that tulips to her heart which "opens and closes / Its bowl of red
do not breathe and hearts that do not beat. She wishes that blooms out of sheer love of me."
the poems were "alive, and that's what they were." The young
woman speaker regretfully states that these poems "are dead,
and their mother near dead with distraction." Analysis
Plath portrays the hospital setting as sterile, tranquil, and
Analysis suffused with the color white. She experiences so much
anxiety that she needs an artificially non-disturbing
Plath expresses a sense of responsibility for her poetry that environment. Her inner torment is easily disturbed by changes
echoes her conflicted feelings about motherhood. She in the environment like the unexpected redness of some tulips.
somewhat playfully argues that she has done all that she The red of the tulips makes the young woman speaker think of
possibly could to make some of her poems work, but her inner suffering. She describes herself as "a thirty-year-old
sometimes they do not come together. She exclaims that the cargo boat / stubbornly hanging on to my name and address."
poems "sit so nicely in the pickling fluid!" Plath creates jolting She declares herself "sick of baggage" and wants to be free of
images of human and animal babies that are not developing her many challenging responsibilities, especially those related
correctly in order to express her writing frustration. She to raising her family. The young woman speaker fantasizes
philosophically considers that the almost acceptable poems about death, picturing it as a source of peace that people
are not "pigs ... not even fish, / Though they have a piggy and a consume "like a Communion tablet." The Communion tablet
fishy air." She again returns to imagining death, this time refers to the Holy Communion or Eucharist, a Christian
triggered by her inability to bring certain poems up to her practice in which bread and wine are consumed while recalling
standards. Plath's miscarriage in 1960 may have been on her the experiences of Jesus. The young woman speaker begins to
mind as she compared her poems to children who do not live perseverate on the flowers as a symbol of her own hurt and
because they are not fully or correctly developed. pain. By the end of the poem, she is insistent that the flowers
are "dangerous" in their ability to hurt her emotionally. Yet the
tulips are also compared to the young woman speaker's heart,

Tulips a "bowl of red blooms" that functions purely "out of sheer love"
for her continued existence. Life itself has become a source of
suffering for the young woman speaker, who finds
disturbances and inspiration in her surroundings and within her
Summary heart.

The red tulips in the poem punctuate a hospital stay that is

portrayed as numb, peaceful, and white. The young woman
speaker begins the poem "lying by myself quietly" after having
"given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses / And my

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Section Summaries 16

experienced hallucinations. The nurses come and go from the

Two Lovers and a room and leave the young woman speaker feeling alternately
cared for and abandoned.
Beachcomber by the Real Sea
Analysis
Summary
In many of her poems, Plath portrays the hospital settings
This early poem takes a nostalgic look back at a summer as it where she lived for short periods as she underwent psychiatric
comes to an end. The young woman speaker's imagination treatment. The white, sterile, artificially peaceful ambience of
"shuts down its fabled summer house" as her and her lover's the hospital is compared to a wintry day. The taste and look of
vacation comes to an end. The young woman speaker metal evoke memories of winter days for the young woman
compares her thoughts to "bats" that "disappear / Into the attic speaker. She portrays the frightening chaos and confusion of
of the skull" and "White whales" that are "gone with the white her intense episodes of mental illness, describing her
ocean." A beachcomber picks at shells and the young woman experiences with hallucinations, discomfort, and loneliness.
speaker reflects on the continuing cycles of nature. The waves The young woman speaker reflects on previous hospital
of the ocean and the sun rising and setting represent the patients who passed away while there, calling them "deathly
continuing flow of nature. guests" who are not pleased with the hospital's offerings nor
with the world beyond the hospital walls. She envisions their
lives fading as they embrace "Mother Morphia," likely a
Analysis reference to morphine a powerful pain-relieving drug derived
from opium. The young woman speaker feels a cold, unfeeling
"Two Lovers and Beachcomber by the Real Sea" won the presence that reminds her of winter and dreams of her senses
Glascock Prize in 1955 the year Plath graduated from Smith fading so that she no longer has to suffer the pain caused by
College. The young woman speaker reflects on the fact that the cold.
nature and time continue relentlessly, as much as we attempt
to analyze it, saying "Though the mind like an oyster labors on
and on, / A grain of sand is all we have." The ending of the Widow
poem focuses on the constant cycles of nature, represented
by the sun rising and setting. The moon with "no little man"
living in it demonstrates nature's lack of feeling for humanity, a
theme Plath revisits throughout her work. The last lines seem
Summary
to mimic the sound of repeating waves with its refrain, "is that,
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died and this poem
is that, is that."
examines the experience from the woman's point of view. Five
of the stanzas of the poem begin simply with "Widow." The
word itself is considered and compared to a paper in a fire that
Waking in Winter burns itself up. Its second syllable is described as "dead ... with
its shadow of an echo" suggesting times and experiences that
are long gone. The widow's worst fear is that her husband's
Summary soul is trying to communicate with her and she cannot sense it.
She is compared to a "bitter spider" who waits on her web of
Plath uses imagery of cold, frozen landscapes to evoke the "loveless spokes," calling to mind the black widow spider
emotional experiences she had while in psychiatric treatment. known to eat its male companion. Her husband's memory
The cold, harsh metal of hospital beds and tables are "circles her like a prey she'd like to kill." God promises nothing
represented by being able to "taste the tin of the sky" and but space to the widow but the trees "bend in" to show
musing that "winter dawn is the color of metal." She retells a compassion for her sadness.
chaotic scene in which she cried out for "Space! Space!" and

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Quotes 17

the baby's curled up fetal position in the womb. She describes

Analysis her child as "right, like a well-done sum," reaching perfection
just by being itself. She calls the baby "a clean slate, with your
Plath explores the experiences of women who experience the
own face on." Its future remains to be seen and will be
death of the man who is closest to them. She pictures the pain
determined by its unique personality and outlook. The
that widows feel after their husbands die and relates it to her
optimistic and nurturing tone of "You're" is uncharacteristic of
own troubled relationship. Widows are portrayed as suffused
Plath's poetry. Its focus on pregnancy and babies is a more
with incredible amounts of sadness. They devote their lives to
common theme for Plath.
the memory of their deceased husbands and are devoid of
hope and positivity about their present lives. Plath split from
her husband English poet Ted Hughes (1930–98) because of
his adultery so she is not writing autobiographically about g Quotes
widowhood. However, she may have felt abandoned, lonely,
and obsessed with her unfaithful husband after their
separation. Plath may be exploring the connection between "A living doll ... It can sew, it can
being a widow and a victim of adultery, conflict, and cook ... It works, there is nothing
abandonment who nevertheless misses her domineering
former spouse. wrong with it."

— The young woman speaker, The Applicant

You're
The woman in "The Applicant" is presented to an applicant for
a position as someone who can fulfill his needs. The young
Summary woman speaker repeatedly urges the applicant to marry the
woman who is dehumanized as "it" and "a living doll."
The young woman speaker addresses her unborn child, the
"you" in the contraction that titles the poem. The child is not
fully formed and is still "gilled like a fish" living inside the womb.
"How one we grow, / Pivot of heels
She tells the unborn child that it is "wrapped up in yourself like
a spool." She refers to the child as a "high-riser, my little loaf," and knees!"
representing the child's growth while inside the young woman
speaker's body. The child is not born yet so its personality is — The young woman speaker, Ariel
"vague as fog," yet it is already so loved, "looked for like mail."
The young woman speaker fondly describes how the child
moves and kicks. She compares the active baby to "a creel of "Ariel" focuses on the experience of riding a horse and feeling
eels" and "a Mexican bean." at one with nature. The rider feels connected to the horse as it
gallops.

Analysis
"Mule-bray, pig-grunt and bawdy
Plath affectionately addresses a child as it grows in the womb.
She is proud of the baby, her "high-riser" and "little loaf." The
cackles ... It's worse than a
young woman speaker pictures her child as a "bent-backed barnyard."
Atlas," referring to the character in Greek mythology who holds
up the world with his back. She juxtaposes this strong
— The young woman speaker, The Colossus
muscular image to a more humorous and humble vision of her
baby as a "prawn," or a large shrimp. These images call to mind
In "The Colossus" the young woman speaker describes the

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Quotes 18

futile act of trying to recreate a large statue like the ancient

saying: / We have come so far, it is
Greek Colossus of Rhodes which she compares to her father.
He does not stick together because of his loud, rambunctious over."
nature, represented by farm animal noises.
— The speaker in "Edge", Edge

"The sun rises under the pillar of The speaker in "Edge" envisions herself as a dead woman who
your tongue." looks like an ancient Greek statue. People who observe the
body feel that the woman looks as if she had traveled a long
way and experienced much before reaching her time of death.
— The young woman speaker, The Colossus

The father figure of "The Colossus" plays an outsized role in

"Love is a shadow. / How you lie
the young woman speaker's life. She pictures herself as living
within a vast world made up of his influence and power. and cry after it."

— The young woman speaker, Elm

"At twenty I tried to die / And get
back, back, back to you." The young woman speaker addresses an elm tree and listens
to its response. The tree chides the young woman speaker for
holding on to a love interest who has left her and will not come
— The young woman speaker, Daddy
back.

The poem "Daddy" lists Plath's multiple suicide attempts and

connects them to her issues with her father. The speaker
"Its snaky acids hiss. / It petrifies
states that she tried to kill herself at age twenty to "get back"
to her father who died when she was 10 years old. the will."

— The young woman speaker, Elm

"A man in black with a Meinkampf
look / And a love of the rack and The young woman speaker in "Elm" begins to see a disturbing
version of the face of her lover as she stares at the tree's
the screw." branches. The imagery of snakes hissing on a head refers to
the ancient Greek goddess Medusa who had hair made of
— The young woman speaker, Daddy snakes and turned anyone who looked at her into stone.

By the end of "Daddy" Plath has compared her father to a Nazi

and her husband to a vampire. She asserts that she married a "I / Am a pure acetylene / Virgin /
"model" of her father, someone dark and torturous with a
Attended by roses."
"Meinkampf look." Mein Kampf (1925) is the manifesto
announcing the violent, racist, antisemitic beliefs of genocidal
— The young woman speaker, Fever 103°
Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler (1889–1945).

The young woman speaker portrays herself as the Virgin Mary

"Her bare / Feet seem to be a central figure in Christianity who was said to have ascended

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Symbols 19

to heaven. She says that she will rise like Mary, likening herself — The young woman speaker, Love Letter
to acetylene, a highly flammable and unstable gas.

"Love Letter" finds Plath musing about how much her lover has
changed her perspectives and experiences. She compares
"They listen for ... the knock of the herself to assorted natural phenomena like a rock and a snake,
searching for an image that accurately reflects her intense
small, new heart."
feelings toward her lover.

— The speaker in "Heavy Women", Heavy Women

"Blue views are boarded up; our

The "heavy women" in the poem of that name are focused
intently on their pregnancies. They pay attention to the sweet vacation / Dwindles in the
beginnings of life stirring within them and plan ahead for the hour-glass."
winter when they will give birth.

— The young woman speaker, Two Lovers and a Beachcomber

by the Real Sea
"Over and over the old, granular
movie / Exposes The young woman speaker recalls bittersweet memories as
the summer comes to a close. She realizes that her time with
embarrassments."
her lover and time in general is very limited; she represents this
with dwindling sand passing through an hourglass.
— The speaker in "Insomniac", Insomniac

The man in "Insomniac" suffers from insomnia or trouble falling

and remaining asleep. Pills no longer help him sleep and his l Symbols
mind replays humiliations from his younger days over and over
like an old movie.

Nature
"Out of the ash / I rise with my red
hair / And I eat men like air." Plath envisions nature as cold and heartless. She frequently
returns to certain symbols of nature's uncaring and oblivious
— The young woman speaker, Lady Lazarus dominion over the world, including the moon, skeletal remains,
blood, fire, and water. She longs to be pulled under the water
to her death in "Lorelei." She describes the moon which is
"Lady Lazarus" ends with an image of a woman coming back to
traditionally a symbol of female fertility and power as
life again and again. The young woman speaker complains
"merciless" in "Elm." Plath describes nature as dark, cold, and
about her inability to kill herself but suggests that her strength
unfeeling, and she often identifies herself with lightness, gas,
and resolve remain.
and fiery explosions in poems such as "Ariel," "Fever 103°," and
"Lady Lazarus."

"Not easy to state the change you

made."

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Themes 20

Nazis Male Figures

Plath uses examples of cruelty and violence on a global scale Plath explores her troubled relationships with the two most
to represent her total contempt for certain people and certain important men in her life, her father and her husband. "The
aspects of her existence. She frequently returns to the Nazis Colossus" envisions her father as having an enormous
as symbols of male dominance and sadism. The Nazis came to influence over her life and towering over her psychological
power in Germany in 1933. During World War II (1939–45) they development like the ancient Greek statue. The Colossus was
killed six million Jews and millions of others including people a gigantic bronze statue of the sun god Helios that stood in the
who were mentally disabled, homosexuals, and political ancient Greek city of Rhodes. At the end of "The Colossus,"
opponents. Their "Final Solution" was a comprehensive plan to she expresses a strong sense of abandonment and feels
rid Europe completely of Jews. The Nazis built concentration despair that her father has left and will not return. In "Daddy"
camps and gas chambers in which they murdered millions of Plath takes a more negative approach, comparing her German
men, women, and children. Their plan came to an end with the immigrant father to a Nazi. "Daddy" concludes with Plath's
defeat of Germany in 1945, but by then the Nazis had killed bitter reflection that she ended up marrying someone who was
about two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. Plath's just as cruel and sadistic as her father. Plath's husband left her
decision to use such a symbol in connection with her father for another woman shortly after she gave birth to their two
and her estranged husband demonstrates her intense children. In "Elm" she hallucinates her lover's face as a
emotions against the harmful influence of both of these men monstrous vision while looking at tree branches. Plath
on her life. frequently explores the overlapping feelings of fear, anger, and
sadness she experiences in relation to both her father and her
husband.

Ascension
Conflicted Motherhood
Plath frequently envisions herself ascending from earth as an
explosive fiery or gaseous substance. In "Fever 103°" she says
"I think I am going up, / I think I may rise." She evokes the Plath faced struggles as she attempted to raise her two young
Christian bible's revered female figure the Virgin Mary who is children without help after her husband abandoned them. Her
the mother of Jesus. She says she becomes "a pure acetylene poetry reflects both positive and negative emotions related to
/ Virgin" who rises into the air. The imagery of "Lady Lazarus" motherhood. She writes about the fascination and deep love
culminates with the poet emerging from the fire with renewed that she feels for her babies. Plath describes pregnant women
strength and power, announcing that "Out of the ash / I rise as possessing a peaceful and life-giving confidence in "Heavy
with my red hair / And I eat men like air." "Ariel" portrays a rider Women." Yet she also describes her children as distractions
of a horse who is barreling into the sun on a "suicidal" mission. from her free and expressive nature, as when she ignores the
Ascension can be a symbol of strength but more frequently child's cry through the wall in "Ariel." Her poem "Stillborn"
relates to Plath's central obsession with death. expresses her conflicted thoughts about motherhood by
envisioning herself as the loving and frustrated mother of her
stunted poems.

m Themes

Copyright © 2021 Course Hero, Inc. Downloaded on 10-02-2021 by 100000833525380

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath Study Guide Narrative Voice 21

Preoccupation with Death

Plath attempted to kill herself several times throughout her life,

and she explores this preoccupation with death in several
poems. In "Lady Lazarus" Plath shares details about trying to
kill herself at age 10 when her father died and again at age
twenty. She states that dying is an art that she is trying to
perfect and complains that she is thwarted and embarrassed
by her failed suicide attempts. She frequently envisions herself
dead as in "Edge" or wishes to die as in "Lorelei." Plath
describes the psychiatric medications she is given as allowing
her to experience death for a short while. Her description of
death is sometimes calm and peaceful as in "Edge" and
sometimes explosive and freeing as in "Ariel." Plath is well-
known for ending her life at a young age through suicide.

b Narrative Voice
Plath's poems are written from varying voices including first,
second, and third person. Plath applies varying narrative
perspectives in her poems depending on the content and
people involved. The young woman speaker speaks from the
first person in the well-known poem "The Colossus." She cries
out to her father in a personal expression of her feelings of
servitude and smallness in his presence. "Lady Lazarus" is a
deeply personal account of Plath's series of suicide attempts; it
is another poem written from the first-person perspective. In
the poem "You're" the young woman speaker uses second-
person voice to speak to her unborn child. The poem deals
with her expectations and her love for the child, and she
addresses him directly to express these feelings. Many of
Plath's poems are written from a third-person perspective. For
example, "Ariel" describes a scene of a horse and rider flying
swiftly into the sun. Its third-person perspective involves a
detailed description of the image as well as a more detached
view of the speaker herself and how she ignores her child's
cries to continue dwelling on the horse-and-rider fantasy. Plath
varies the perspectives, voices, and approaches in her poetry
to fit her intensely confessional and personal expressiveness.

All material contained within this document/guide is protected by copyright law of the US and various other
jurisdictions and may not be reproduced or distributed without the express written consent. Contact Course Hero
with respect to reproduction or distribution. This document was downloaded from Coursehero.com on 10-02-2021
by 100000833525380.