Compare two poems from the Norton Anthology Sylvia Plath "Lady Lazarus" and "Daddy"
Imagery is the essence of all forms of poetry. It is what brings a poem to life it is the key to releasing all the emotions in us. Imagery develops a deeper meaning to the poem and its major themes. Plath uses a lot of images in her poem which reflect her feelings and help the reader to relate to her. The recurrences of related images are the central elements in Sylvia Plath 's poetry. The poems of "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus" both use imagery of historical people and events that took place to explain tense and painful emotions. The imagery she employs throughout both poems is intensely personal and centered around her intimate emotions. Due to this fact, this subsequently draws the attention more clearly to the themes of each poem.
It is interesting to note that "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus" were written only a fortnight apart, this may help to understand her state of mind at that time. It is conveyed through many related images in both of her poems. These specific images such as the Holocaust and her use of colour imagery effectively stress the themes of the poem which are primarily life and death.
"Daddy" is a disturbing depiction of the father-daughter relationship- A relationship of the oppressor and the oppressed. Her father 's order and brutality is expressed in stereotypical images of a Nazi "neat moustache", "Mein Kempf look."
In "Daddy" the main theme is that of death and fear. "Poor and White" is a stark contrast to the "Black Shoe" All her feeling and emotion has been sapped out by her father. The use of the colour "Black" represents death and negative images, it is the narrator 's mental and physical torture and ultimate destruction. This colour brings back the picture of her father. Strong images are used throughout this poem such as in the line "Marble Heavy, a bag full of god","Frisco seal" suggests the heaviness her fathers authority weighed on her throughout her life. This imagery would suggest that her father represented a threatening and
It is interesting to note that "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus" were written only a fortnight apart, this may help to understand her state of mind at that time. It is conveyed through many related images in both of her poems. These specific images such as the Holocaust and her use of colour imagery effectively stress the themes of the poem which are primarily life and death.
"Daddy" is a disturbing depiction of the father-daughter relationship- A relationship of the oppressor and the oppressed. Her father 's order and brutality is expressed in stereotypical images of a Nazi "neat moustache", "Mein Kempf look."
In "Daddy" the main theme is that of death and fear. "Poor and White" is a stark contrast to the "Black Shoe" All her feeling and emotion has been sapped out by her father. The use of the colour "Black" represents death and negative images, it is the narrator 's mental and physical torture and ultimate destruction. This colour brings back the picture of her father. Strong images are used throughout this poem such as in the line "Marble Heavy, a bag full of god","Frisco seal" suggests the heaviness her fathers authority weighed on her throughout her life. This imagery would suggest that her father represented a threatening and
Bibliography: http://www.sylviaplath.de/ (14/01/04) http://www.sylviaplathforum.com/ (14/01/04) http://www.cla.sc.edu/ENGL/writingprograms/FirstYrEnglish/edgerton.htm (14/01/04) http://cityhonors.buffalo.k12.ny.us/city/rsrcs/eng/plasca.html (14/01/04) http://cityhonors.buffalo.k12.ny.us/city/rsrcs/eng/placady1.html (14/01/04) http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A688197 (15/01/04) http://www.womenwriters.net/editorials/whitton0500.htm (18/01/04) http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk (18/01/04) Norton Anthology of Poems