Hard Times Though Poetry with Plath

Trigger warning – suicide

Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 and took her life at the age of 30 in 1963. She was born in Boston to a German immigrant, Otto Plath, and a student of his, Aurelia Schober. Sylvia was a gifted student and during her years as an undergraduate student, that’s when she began symptoms of severe depression. She first tried to commit suicide by taking a bunch of pills, but it didn’t work. She then died from suicide to inhaling gas from a kitchen oven. It was said that Plath was one of the most dynamic and admired poets of the 20th century (Poetry Foundation, “Sylvia Plath” line 1). Her poems are about her visions of herself, and stuff she struggled with in her life such as her mental health, troubles with her marriage with Ted Hughes, and conflicts with her parents.

The three poems I chose to look into were Tulips, Elm, and Nick and the Candlestick. Confessional poetry is from a poet’s own perspective and experiences of their life and how they view things.

To me the poem Tulips makes me think of giving herself up. I feel it is her perspective of her own funeral; she is watching her funeral from up above. “Nobody watched me before, now I am watched.” (Poetry Foundation, “Tulips by Sylvia Plath” line 43). Once she passed, she saw how everyone was now watching her and didn’t notice her before she left. “Their redness talks to my wound, it corresponds.” (Poetry Foundation, “Tulips by Sylvia Plath” line 39). The redness of her blood goes too much to the redness of the tulips.

Elm is like her battling with her own mental health. “I am terrified by this dark thing, that sleeps in me;” (Poetry Foundation “Elm by Sylvia Plath line 31-32). She is terrified of her mental health in her; it sleeps in her and stays there. This dark thing is viewed as her mental health. “That kill, that kill, that kill.” (Poetry Foundation “Elm by Sylvia Plath line 42), it is slowly killing her.

Nick and the Candlestick, I believe Nick is the child’s name and she could be watching him through the light of a candlestick. “O embryo. Remembering, even in sleep, Your crossed position. The blood blooms clean.” (Poetry Foundation “Nick and the Candlestick lines 25-28). She is looking at her child, sleeping in a cross positioned way through the light of a candlestick. Blood blooms clean like the meaning of fresh blood into the world.

Works Cited

Poetry Foundation. “Sylvia Plath.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, 2016, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/sylvia-plath.