Sylvia Plath

A number of scholars, especially those working in the field of feminist literary criticism, have seen "The Zoo-Keeper's Wife" as a critique of traditional marriage. In particular, they point to the...

"Lesbos" is one of Sylvia Plath's poems collected in Ariel, a book edited by Plath's husband, the English poet Ted Hughes, and published after Plath's death by suicide. It was not actually included...

"You're" is rife with similes and metaphors as its purpose is to compare the titular character to all of the things which remind Plath of him/her. This poem is about an unborn child--a baby still...

The poem is indeed a complex one, and there will be more interpretations out there, I'm sure. - A common-sense / thumbs-down on the Dodo's mode Here I think Plath is recognising the innate...

Your first step in writing your essay is to identify the basic characteristics of Irving Layton's “The Bull Calf” and Sylvia Plath's “Tulips.” Layton's poem is composed in free verse with no...

Plath was a Confessionalist poet. Therefore, her work was one which spoke to how her life was and the conflicts she faced. Her work is typically seen as dark and depressing. Her philosophy was...

I agree completely with your statement. Besides the piece by piece analysis of her work that supports that assessment, remember that Plath's life writings are essentially a journal of mental...

"Bitter Strawberries," by Sylvia Plath, describes a conversation that takes place among farm workers who are picking strawberries. The conversation is about "the Russians," who pose a threat to the...

Plath uses much sustained death imagery: both suicide and Holocaust imagery (comparing herself to a Jew and her father to a Nazi). She writes grim apostrophes to her executioners, her father in...

This poem is based around two central comparisons that the speaker of the poem makes between herself and then a tree and a flower. It is this sense of kinship--or the lack of it--that is explored...

The main themes are xenophobia (fear of foreigners or ‘Others’) and stubbornness with that prejudice and war mentality. This poem directly refers to the Cold War which was basically a game of...

Plath's feminism is probably most visible in her novel The Bell Jar. The men she presents throughout the story are largely clueless and insensitive to women. In some cases, their behavior would be...

The poem "Cut" by Sylvia Plath is a confessional poem written during an especially difficult time in her life. It had recently become publicized that her husband, Ted Hughes, was having an affair,...

Sylvia Plath, an American author considered one of the most emotional writers of the post war period, was a deeply troubled individual who committed suicide at the age of 30. "A complicated...

In 1960, Sylvia Plath wrote this short poem to describe her feelings towards being pregnant for the first time. She had a complicated relationship with the notion of pregnancy. Sylvia Plath was...

The themes of "Wintering" by Sylvia Plath are renewal and regeneration and feminine identity and motherhood, all of which have personal meaning for Plath, who writes in self-analysis. The poet...

Sylvia Plath's poem "You're" is narrated by a speaker who is a mother meditating on her unborn child. The speaker's use of comparison, mostly through figurative language, captures the feeling of...

You have certainly picked a poem with a number of separate examples of personification in it. Let us remind ourselves of the definition of personfication. Personification is a figure of speech...

Seeing that Sylvia Plath's poetry is so strongly identified with the idea of confessional poetry, I tend to think that her subjectivity is expressed in a terminology of the personal. She does not...

Unlike many of Sylvia Plath poems, "Night Shift" does not address feminist issues such as the domestic realm, nor the confessional quality that prevails in much of her poetry. Instead, "Night...

One of the reasons for this critical designation as a poet of failed relationships is poems about failed relationships, like "Daddy." This symbolic poem ("Daddy, I have had to kill you. / You died...

Plath is hard to put into a box; her poetry entirely unpredictable. Her frequent tones seemed to expose herself at varying times of her life. These would portray brillance, detachment, worry,...

Plath uses a variety of devices in her poem "I Am Vertical." To begin, here is the second stanza of the poem: Tonight, in the infinitesimal light of the stars, The trees and flowers have been...

In both Anne Sexton's "The Civil War" and Sylvia Plath's "In Plaster", the narrators talk about divided selves, with one self offering up a critique of the second self. The tone, themes, and...

I certainly think that Plath deserves credit for challenging conventions. She was not afraid to challenge poetic conventions of the day in the idea of ensuring that her work was an accurate...

It's hard not to agree with Millicent's choice to turn down the sorority at the end of Plath's story "Initiation." First, Millicent has a number of logical reasons not to join. Her best friend,...

In the poems "Mirror" and "Morning Song," the most obvious sign of Sylvia Plath's uniqueness is found in her nearly uncomfortable level of honesty in portraying the inner life of a woman. "Mirror"...

Typical characteristics of Confessional poetry are : -The use of "I" stories -Descriptions of personal life (including family trials and personal struggles) -Craft was true to poetic conventions...

Poetry can be very difficult to analyze for often the poet is speaking so figuratively, based upon their personal perceptions, that it can be difficult to fully appreciate what the poet is trying...

First, you need to ask yourself, what makes a poet confessional? A lot of times, a poet will write in a voice specific to the poem, not necessarily about themselves. That doesn't mean that the poem...

Although Sylvia Plath (often along with Anne Sexton) is most inexorably tied with the Confessional movement of poetry, Robert Lowell, the creator of the style, is probably the most confessional of...

I think what you need to do in your essay is analyze Sylvia Plath's poetry from a feminist perspective. You might start out with several research questions: What roles do women play in the poems?...

In analyzing Plath's poetry, one has to account for the role of her father in her life and work. Plath's experience with her father was formative. Articulated in her poetry, there is a struggle...

Originally titled "Quarrel," "The Event" was written in 1962, and is plainly a commentary on Plath's deteriorating marriage to Ted Hughes. It was written following a visit from Assia Wevill, the...

A critical appreciation of Sylvia Plath's “Circus in Three Rings” will strive to determine the poem's purpose and then evaluate how well its form and content fulfill that purpose. Let's begin with...

One of my favourite poems by Sherman Alexie is "How to Write the Great American Indian Novel." In this poem, the speaker bitterly challenges stereotypical notions of what it is to be American...

The Holocaust has long been considered sacred territory. Politicians, entertainers, and others who have cavalierly offered images from the Holocaust for metaphorical or comparative purposes have...

You can divide her life into three sections: juvenalia (her young period of writing as detailed in The Bell Jar), the Colossus years (her first book of poetry), and her Ariel years (her last book...

These stanzas from "Night Shift" by Sylvia Plath are replete with poetic devices and with sensory imagery, in particular. They describe a factory which is in full production, so naturally the...

"Full Fathom Five" takes its title from Shakespeare's The Tempest. (The phrase has since been used in other texts and mediums.) In Act One, Scene Two, Ariel sings that Ferdinand's father has...

In this stanza the speaker apparently succeeds in tracking down the sound that has been disturbing her all evening; the source is finally 'exposed' as coming from an industrial factory. The line...

Yes. Gothic literature is a genre that focuses on death, darkness, terror and chaos. Generally, the genre glorified these things to find meaning in the irrational rather than the rational....