Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath
When I read Sylvia Plath's poems I could not believe how disturbing they were. I
can't imagine being that obsessed with dying and I actually felt sorry for her. She was one of my favorite poets because I thought her poems had such depth and emotion behind them, she was writing about something she felt very passionate about, which is death.
I found the poem "Tulips" interesting because tulips symbolize love and life.
She wants to die and the tulips seem to prevent this. The first stanza is about her being in
a hospital, "I have given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses and my history to
the anesthetist and by body to the surgeons." I like how she wrote "They bring me
numbness in their bright needles, they bring me sleep." They must give her injections of sedatives so she can sleep and not have to feel any emotions. The line "My husband and child smiling out of the family photo; Their smiles catch onto my skin, little smiling hooks" shows that she is trying to ignore the picture but she can't. When she looks at the picture she is reminded of the pain she is bringing them by being in the hospital. She then writes "I didn't want any flowers, I only wanted to lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty." She wants to die, she didn't want anyone to get her anything because that would show that they cared about her. She then starts referring to the tulips, "The tulips are too red in the first place, they hurt me
They concentrate my attention." She says this because the tulips are making her focus on them and she doesn't want that. She doesn't want to have any feelings or emotions, she wants to be numb and die.
I found the poem "Lady Lazarus" a little disturbing. This is obviously about her
attempted suicides and her suicidal thoughts. It seems she has tried to kill herself once
every ten years, "I have done it again. One year in every ten I...
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