Plath, Sylvia - Mary Lynn Broe (essay date 1980)
Mary Lynn Broe (essay date 1980)
SOURCE: Broe, Mary Lynn. “The Colossus: ‘In Sign Language of a Lost Other World.’” In Protean Poetic: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath, 43-79. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1980.
[In the following essay, Broe discusses Plath's poetic vision during the writing of The Colossus.]
INTRODUCTION
Before the advent of the posthumous volume Ariel in 1965, The Colossus poems were heralded as promising examples of well-crafted work. Critics described the poems as hardy in language and sensibility, marked by unsentimental vitality, “mint-new” rhymes and decisive rhythms: “concrete experience arranged in clean, easy verse, ornate where necessary.”1 In addition to her fine handling of language, Plath was praised for humor, cleverness, and exuberance: “Sylvia Plath writes clever, vivacious poetry which will be enjoyed most by intelligent people capable of...
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