Sylvia Plath

The poetic techniques employed by Plath succeed in making the world of her poetry a strange and terrifying one.
I agree with the above statement as I feel that the world of Plath’s poetry is made strange and often terrifying by her use of poetic techniques. In my opinion the poetic techniques that aid most in making the world of her poetry strange and terrifying would be the use of allegory, imagery, similes and metaphors and also the use of words with ominous connotations. The poems that I will discuss in which these poetic techniques are present are Finisterre, Morning Song and The Arrival of the Bee Box.
Finisterre, being a landscape poem, uses the power of imagery to reflect a mood of fear and also death. The world of Finisterre, as told by Plath, is seen as being terrifying. “Black, admonitory cliffs” is synonymous with Plath warning us of the danger these cliffs possess. The ocean is presented as a terrifying, vast “exploding” force “with no bottom” that “canons” into the coastline, making an endless overwhelming sound. These images associate Finisterre with an invading army, reinforcing our sense of its frightening powerfulness. Whilst Plath uses words that may not have ominous connotations when used on their own, black and white both underline the sinister mood of the poem; white being associated with faces of the dead while the “peasant woman in black” symbolizes mourning and death, the statue offering her no solace or comfort. By utilizing imagery, Plath presents us with a terrifying world, one that we would enter with caution.
Similes and metaphors play a big part in creating a strange world in Morning Song. Plath offers us a brutally honest insight into the world of motherhood. The very first line, when read first, comes across as strange and inapplicable to a newborn baby but as we delve deeper into the simile, we begin to understand that perhaps it makes sense. “Love set you going like a fat gold watch”. It is interesting that Plath uses the word