...The story begins with old Dr. Heidegger inviting four elderly friends over to his rather eerie study: Colonel Killigrew, Mr. Medbourne, Mr. Gascoigne, and the Widow Wycherly. The four old folks have all fallen a long way from their prime; each squandered his own type of fortune (youth, money, power, beauty) and is now in a miserable state. The narrator also informs us that, when they were young, the three men used to fight over the attention of the Widow Wycherly.Heidegger's creepy study contains, among other things, a bust of Hippocrates with whom Dr. Heidegger consults from time to time, a magic black book, a skeleton in a closet, and a mirror that supposedly contains the visages of Heidegger's dead patients. The Doctor presents his guests with four empty champagne glasses and an ornate vase full of clear, bubbling liquid. He takes an old, withered rose, drops it into the vase, and shows his guests that it has in fact been rejuvenated to a fresh-blooming flower. Dr. Heidegger then claims that the liquid in the vase is water from the mythical Fountain of Youth. He would like their help in an experiment: they drink the water, he sits back and watches. The guests are clearly skeptical, but they agree. Before they drink, Dr. Heidegger warns them not to make the same mistakes they did the first time they were young. The guests drink, and they believe they have grown young again. (Whether or not they actually are physically transformed is ambiguous.) Of course, they...
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...Ian Gilbert Words by Sylvia Plath is a powerful poem that strikes at the very meaning of words and their potential. At first glance, feelings of strength and energy wash over the reader. When reading it out loud its almost impossible not to picture an overdramatic actor clenching their right hand and looking up to the sky. The use of the word indefatigable makes this poem quite self evident in the power and emotion spewing from that word. The emotion throughout the poem is almost direct pain. This is shown immediately with the first word “Axes.” After reading it a few times this word is still the most striking because words are like axes. They can be very painful. This pain can also be seen in the lines “Wells like tears” meaning more pain caused from words. From this the reader can infer that Plath was probably recently struck down by words. The next striking visual comes from the use of sound and the way sound acts. “Echoes traveling off the center like horses” giving the reader a great sense of indirect onomatopoeia and a stunning visual. A rock dropping into water gives a similar visual with the use of circles, making another reference to the way sound can have an impact. The final three words of the poem sum up at least some of the meaning within the poem. “Govern a life.” This is very accurate for the majority of us. We try not to, but we live the majority of our lives according to what we hear people say about us and what we should do. All these things that she described...
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...Mad Girl’s Love Song Mad Girl’s Love Song is written in 1951, by Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. She was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts and she died on February 11, 1963 in London, England. Mad Girl’s Love Song is a poem, Sylvia Plath wrote while she was a student at Smith College. The poem has a theme of suicide as an escape. There are many places where the theme of suicide appears in the poem. The poem is about a girl who spent her whole life waiting for a man she gave herself to, against her beliefs, who was never to return. There is one phrase in the poem that which has a big importance. I think I made you up inside my head This phrase is repeated a few times and that makes us thinks that the girl is wishing that this man is made up, and she is trying to convince herself of it. The phrase is kind of a quote which signifies that these are thoughts to her, and not out loud, which can means that she is trying to convince herself it is true. Sylvia wished that she would overcome her depression and grow out of the despair she was living in. I fancied you’d return the way you said, but I grow old and I forget your name But in fact, her wishes and search for her happiness had driven her insane. She had been lost for so long that she didn't remember what it was like to truly be happy so therefore she would never be able to identify it if she were to regain control of her life. I think I made you...
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...“Two Sisters of Persephone” The poem, “Two Sisters of Persephone” by Sylvia Plath, introduces a stage in Plath’s life. Written in 1956, the same year Plath got married, this poem presents two potential paths for Plath and also exposes her severe depression that began as a young girl and endured throughout her adulthood. The speaker’s inability to reconcile two personalities in this poem leads to her demise. This is illustrated though textual and literary devices, as well as mythological allusions. Plath’s background along with Greek myths allows the reader feel a part of Plath’s dilemma and relate her problem to many women. Sylvia Plath was born in 1932. The death of Plath's father in 1940 led to her extreme depression, which never subsided. She had two unsuccessful suicide attempts at ages 10 and 20. However, in 1954, things began to seem optimistic, with Plath receiving scholarship to Harvard summer school and then in 1955 with her graduation from Smith and attending Cambridge University on Fulbright fellowship. On June 16, 1956, Sylvia Plath married Ted Hughes. Plath was known to be a feminist, which is evident in this poem, “Two Sisters of Persephone.” When her hard-working self was presented with marriage, Plath was confronted with a crisis that is represented in the poem. With her new marriage, she questioned whether or not she should remain herself and work, or become the stereotypical wife, stay home, and merely bear children. The emotional effects on...
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...Sylvia Plath had a life full of ups and downs. Her lifelong battle with multiple different illnesses is what made her career but also ended it at the same time. Using her research along with the research of other Dr. Jamison was able to make a “literary, biographical, and scientific argument for a compelling association, not to say actual overlap, between two temperaments--the artistic and the manic-depressive—and their relationship to the rhythms and cycles, or temperament, of the natural world.” Plath is just one poet among an extensive list of poets that have suffered from this illness (Butscher 385). Sylvia Plath was born to Otto and Aurelia Plath on October 27, 1932 in Boston Massachusetts. Plath’s father who was a professor at Boston University, the school Plath’s mom was attending, took a bus, boat, and trolley to get to work every morning (Steinberg, “A Celebration”). This dedication proves that Otto...
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...would say that understanding this poem is not as hard as the other poems, as we can see the meaning is not so complicated. “Death & Co” written by Sylvia Plath around the timeline of world war II, this poem clearly shows the events and distress that was going around at the time. Death has been described as two people in the poem, “Two, of course there are two” the first being demonic, evil and ugly; this face of death is so evil and ugly that Plath called it “Bastard”', the second death character is amusing, he smokes and smiles (contrasting the other death who cannot smile and cannot smoke either). Both poets use the theme of “death” to express their feelings and to maintain an atmosphere of darkness to show how they feel or what phase of life they are going through. Heany uses some intsresting points in mid term break, once again if we look at the title “Mid-Term Break” which gives a sense of fun, rejoicing and no stress at all; misleads to an idea of happiness because the reader would get an idea that this poem would be happy and active mood. Yet ironically, the poem turns out to be totally opposite; sad and awfully calm. However Plath uses “Death & Co” as her title , which straight away gives an idea of sadness and gloomy atmosphere compare to Heaney’s. This shows that predictably this poem is going to be about Sylvia committing suicide or wanting to hug death, which she has tried many...
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...West Yorkshire in 1930. His father was a carpenter and a veteran of World War I. Although his family moved when he was eight years old, the landscape of his birthplace had a huge impact on his writing. He went to Cambridge in the 1950s where he read English Literature, Archaeology and Anthropology. While at Cambridge, he met his first wife, Sylvia Plath, whom he married in 1956. After university he had various jobs, including working in a zoo, teaching and reading scripts at Pinewood Studios. Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes had two children but later separated. In the year after their separation she committed suicide. Hughes followed his relationship with Plath by one with Assia Wevill. They lived together and she looked after his children from his first marriage. However, she also committed suicide, gassing herself and her daughter in a manner similar to that of Plath. In 1970, Hughes married Carol Orchard and they remained together until his death. In 1984 Hughes became Poet Laureate and held the post until his death. He died in 1998, shortly after the publication of Birthday Letters, a collection of poems about his relationship with Sylvia Plath. His ashes were scattered on Dartmoor. Hughes writes about the elements and aspects of the natural world in much of his poetry. The poet Simon Armitage said that for Hughes, poetry was ‘a connecting rod between nature and humanity’. Hughes was a very prolific writer who as well as writing poetry, also wrote for children. In his...
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...Mirror Rosalind Sledge ENG 125: Introduction to Literature Instructor Michelle Pinkard November 5, 2012 Mirror by Sylvia Plath is a poem that focuses on the purpose and existence of a mirror. The mirror is showed to be the speaker of the poem by in the beginning, describing itself and explaining its character as though it is human. One is able to feel emotion by understanding the important qualities it possesses. The mirror also metaphors itself as a lake and tells the important relationship it has with a woman. Women are drawn to mirrors searching for beauty but are often disappointed and turn their backs looking elsewhere. The mirror represents truth and is not intended to hurt or be cruel. This poem is very engaging by way of point of view, language, and imagery which helped to address a common human experience in how a woman sees herself. The point of view in a piece of literature work is very important in that it helps a reader to understand the narrator’s purpose of the story. The poem Mirror is told from a first person’s point of view in which the speaker is a mirror explaining what it reflects. In the first stanza, it states, “I have no preconceptions / Whatever I see, I swallow immediately / Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike” (cited in Clugston, 2010, Poems for Reflection, para. 13). By knowing the thoughts of the narrator, it allows a person to not only understand but to also feel the emotions portrayed within the story. While reading the poem, one...
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...Jessica Sutherland English 1102 What Does Internal Mean to Eternal Man? The poem “Fever 103°”, written by Sylvia Plath, reveals competing satire and radical takes on the poem. A formal analysis and reader-response will explore the poems two meanings and how they are shaped and built within the work. The work in short is an expression of sex and sensuality versus safe guarding ones purity and oneself. As it opens with Cerberus at the gates of hell, unable to lick clean the feverish tendon, then to love as in the smell of a snuffed candle, next to the smoke breaking the speaker’s neck. The poem continues to compare adulterers to devilish leopards, but in the next stanza she pleads and her sheets grow heavy. The elements of allusion, diction and, imagery come together to highlight the poem’s ambiguity. Its ambiguity, the two views of taking the poem as the speaker being straight forward in presenting the celibate as more godly, and as a result the impure unworthy of them, and the perspective that the speakers god-complex and displayed self-importance is satire to mock the pure who find themselves so mighty. The two takes on the work are hidden from another once it is read within the internal perspective view of the reader. “Fever 103°” is a poem of two foils chosen to created make a mockery of the reader, the views are pinned together to show the human self-servient manner to choose what gives them self-justification...
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...A prominent figure of modern American literature, confessional poet, Sylvia Plath, works hold grand significance, for it lead to the probe of a feminist-martyr to patriarchal society, sex-based roles, and psychiatric care. Noted for the blend of intense imagery and humorous use of alliteration and rhyme, Plath associating her works with her personal battles of anguish and depression, further solidified her mark on American history. Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 in Winthrop, Massachusetts, to an academically well-established family. Her father died when she was eight, marking the beginning of her lifelong internal battles of depression, hence her poem Daddy. Ambitiously driven and exceptional student, from a young age she kept journals, published poems in reginal magazines and newspapers. She later attended Smith and Cambridge University, where she met and married the poet, Ted Hughes, birthing two children. Throughout her life, Plath suffered deep depression and...
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...In 1956 Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, spent their honeymoon in Paris . About twenty years later Hughes explored they both explored their respective feelings for the city. Hughes’ poem “Your Paris”, from his anthology of poems entitled “Birthday Letters”, is his representation of their time in Paris, as it shows his perspective on the city and on each other. Plath’s journal entries from March 6 and 26, 1956 show her perspective and purpose of her first visit to Paris, which was without Hughes to resume a relationship with an ex-lover (Richard Sassoon). Both texts show each composer’s outlook on their visit to Paris and the experiences that have shaped their perspective on Paris. The purpose of Ted Hughes’ “Birthday Letters” was to “open a direct, private, inner contact” with Sylvia Plath and to “evoke her presence” to himself. The series of 88 poems, in which all but two are addressed to Plath, were written around 30 years after Plath committed suicide. The poems show Hughes’ raw emotion, passion and personal opinion on their relationship, showing why he has chosen the form of poetry to show us his thoughts. However, Plath’s journal entries show her reflecting on what happened on her first trip to Paris and how this has influenced her attitude on their honeymoon. Her journal entries are also very personal and she used them as a therapeutic method of coping with the difficulties she faced in life. The title of Hughes’ poem “Your Paris” refers to Plath and her...
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...The poem Daddy by Sylvia Plath is about her life and how she lived in a male dominated world. There are many allusions within the poem and how she compares historical events to her own experiences. The first example of allusion is the entire poem and how Sylvia’s past has haunted her. She talks about how she was abused as a child and how her father treated her like a prisoner. She refers to her father as a “Nazi” and herself as a “Jew”, throughout the poem she talks about the significant events that happened in World War 2 such as the concentration camps in Auschwitz and how she feels that she is being kept imprisoned as a Jew in a concentration camp as well as her father acting like a Nazi would towards a Jew. The second example of allusion...
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...Sylvia Plath’s Mirror: A Reflection Misty Williams ENG125 Introduction to Literature Instructor Stephen Rogers July 22, 2013 I was drawn to Sylvia Plath’s poem Mirror because of her use of figurative language. I am also drawn to her dark style of writing. Personification, symbolism and metaphors used were key elements in attracting my attention. The personification of the mirror gives the point of view of an impartial bystander observing a woman as she struggles with her changing image and self-esteem. The simile is used to show a woman who is unable to accept who she really is. The use of metaphor explains how something as small as a mirror can have much control over how we view ourselves. Personification occurs when inanimate objects, animals or ideas are assigned human characteristics. In the first four lines the mirror is given human traits with the use of the word “I”, “Whatever I see, I swallow…” gives the ability to see and swallow, and “I am not cruel, only truthful” gives the mirror a sense of truth and honesty. (As cited by Clugston, 2010, 12.2) The use of personification brings into effect past, present and future. This different perspective allowed me to “see” what the mirror sees and not get involved in the emotions of the woman and how she views herself. The mirror and reflection are metaphors representing the exact truth. The mirror is "unmisted" by prejudice human "preconceptions" and reveals "only" the "truthful" viewpoints...
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...Gianna Sacco Pursuit – Sylvia Plath This poem begins with a vivid image of someone being followed by a panther. Plath feels like “there is a panther stalking” her down. The title of this poem, being “Pursuit” summarizes the poem. It is the pursuit of her doom, she is trying to get away from the panther which is chasing her until the end, however, at times she feels guilt and a sort of drive towards him. She is attracted to this panther which will eventually lead to trouble. Hence, Plath uses many themes in this poem such as color and feelings and the aggressiveness of nature, which leads to the way she feels about being followed. The pursuer is double faced, as the first two lines demonstrate. “there is a panther stalks me down/ One day I’ll have my death of him.” On one side it is clear that the panther is pursuing the author, while on the other it could be the author pursuing her doom, being the panther. Fear and running are the elements that express the fact that the pursuer is the panther. Plath is being pursued as she uses words such as “I run, I rush, sacrifice, bait”. The contrast is seen when she says “the hunt is on”, they are after each other. It is a never ending cycle. Even though Plath is quickly considered the one being pursued by the panther, she can also be considered the pursuer. Plath writes “one day I’ll have my death of him” instead of something along the lines of ‘one day he will kill me’. Plath is also chasing the panther, pursuing her own death. Her...
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...Cryptically confronting and subtly depressive, Sylvia Plath’s poetry caught the minds of young writers and poetry enthusiasts whilst disgruntling older, more traditional generations of poetry readers. Her use of imagery depicting a world tarnished, the war of a dysfunctional family and a depressive mind and imagination took the poetry world by storm and even after 55 years, Sylvia Plath is a prominent figure throughout the world of literature. Plath’s work is heavily influenced by, and imbedded in, the confessional poetry movement. A movement between the 1950’s and 60’s, that witnessed the rise of personal or first person writing, “I”, and highly private or emotional subject matter such as trauma, death and depression, all of which can be found in much of Plath’s writing. This element of her work, already ‘outrageous’ for many was heightened by the fact that she was a woman. This movement allowed her to openly and bluntly address and express the outrage she and many other women felt to the periods’ societal and gender norms. Her use of language and poetic technique are lost when not read aloud, most prominently in “daddy” where the poem takes on a sing-song, lullaby rhythm that amplifies the meaning and connotations within...
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