Cambridge 11 Poem By Sylvia Plath
FEBRUARY 11, 1963.
It was the coldest, wettest and most miserable winter in decades. Her fever reached extraordinary heights, her sinuses were bruised and blocked, and she was alone. Alone in the midst of motherhood, caring for her two sick children; the oldest was nearly three and the youngest, nearly one. (Jamaica Plain, 1970) Handling material so violent in nature - it was almost like terrorism where you risk the bomb blowing up in your face. She was pushing on the friable edge risking that it just might break. She was locked into a closed world where there was no way out. After mindfully setting out the children’s breakfast, she opened the oven door and placed a folded white cotton cloth on the inside. She gently lowered herself to the floor and carefully laid her head inside the oven. She turned on the cooking gas, but did not move her …show more content…
Plath writes her body is a “thirty year old cargo boat” (4th Stanza: 1st Line) which “sinks out of sight”(4th Stanza: 6th Line) (Dobbs, 2000). She is the cargo boat, loaded past her maximum ability; she falls victim to the exhaustion of her responsibilities and cannot cope with such a load anymore. By surrendering to the sea, she liberates herself from all of her weighty burdens and, through the religious metaphor, “I am a nun now, I have never been so pure” (4th Stanza: 7th Line) – she has transformed from a battered cargo boat to being pure, cleaned of all her responsibilities.
Personification is used to bring the tulips to life: they terrorise her as they become both superior and more powerful than her. Plath personifies the tulips as she states, “they hurt me” (6th Stanza: 1st Line), “The vivid tulips eat my oxygen” (7th Stanza: 7th Line) and “I am now watched” (7th Stanza: 1st Line). The tulips steal her oxygen, hurt her and watch her – this exemplifies her falling victim to her burdens as they symbolically suffocate her and cause her
It was the coldest, wettest and most miserable winter in decades. Her fever reached extraordinary heights, her sinuses were bruised and blocked, and she was alone. Alone in the midst of motherhood, caring for her two sick children; the oldest was nearly three and the youngest, nearly one. (Jamaica Plain, 1970) Handling material so violent in nature - it was almost like terrorism where you risk the bomb blowing up in your face. She was pushing on the friable edge risking that it just might break. She was locked into a closed world where there was no way out. After mindfully setting out the children’s breakfast, she opened the oven door and placed a folded white cotton cloth on the inside. She gently lowered herself to the floor and carefully laid her head inside the oven. She turned on the cooking gas, but did not move her …show more content…
Plath writes her body is a “thirty year old cargo boat” (4th Stanza: 1st Line) which “sinks out of sight”(4th Stanza: 6th Line) (Dobbs, 2000). She is the cargo boat, loaded past her maximum ability; she falls victim to the exhaustion of her responsibilities and cannot cope with such a load anymore. By surrendering to the sea, she liberates herself from all of her weighty burdens and, through the religious metaphor, “I am a nun now, I have never been so pure” (4th Stanza: 7th Line) – she has transformed from a battered cargo boat to being pure, cleaned of all her responsibilities.
Personification is used to bring the tulips to life: they terrorise her as they become both superior and more powerful than her. Plath personifies the tulips as she states, “they hurt me” (6th Stanza: 1st Line), “The vivid tulips eat my oxygen” (7th Stanza: 7th Line) and “I am now watched” (7th Stanza: 1st Line). The tulips steal her oxygen, hurt her and watch her – this exemplifies her falling victim to her burdens as they symbolically suffocate her and cause her