Portrayal of nature and natural world in Plath's poem 'Tulips'
Explore the way Sylvia Plath presents nature and the natural world in her poem ‘Tulips’
‘Tulips’ is a poem that was written by Sylvia Plath in 1961 and was published after her death in 1965. Plath wrote this poem while recovering in hospital after recently having a miscarriage and having an appendectomy. This poem, set in the hospital, expresses Plath’s feelings and emotions at this time in her life.
Nature and the natural world are themes, which are portrayed, in a negative light in many of Plath’s poems, ‘Tulips’ included. She saw nature as a threat, and something that oppressed her, exposed her or caused her pain. In her poem ‘Tulips’ nature, specifically the tulips themselves, are personified which causes her to be reminded of life, her troubled childhood and unhappy marriage, something that she wishes to escape from.
The tulips are described as ‘too excitable’ in the first stanza, they are an annoyance to Plath as she achieved a calm and peaceful state of mind during her time in hospital, ‘I am learning peacefulness,’ but the tulips are destroying this tranquil atmosphere. The tulips present nature as something obtrusive in this stanza as well something that is out of place in the quiet, white, man-made and sterile environment of the hospital.
However, in the third stanza the imagery linked to nature is quite calming and soothing. Sylvia Plath’s ‘body is a pebble’, the nurses
‘tend it as water Tends to the pebbles’ this shows that Plath sees the nurses caring for her as water flowing over a pebble and wearing it down slowly and gently, which is a chilling but beautiful and serene image at the same time. This is a great contrast to the portrayal of nature through the destructive and threatening tulips throughout the rest of the poem.
The tulips interrupt the poet’s expression of thoughts and feelings throughout the poem. The presence of these tulips and their bright colour causes her pain, ‘the tulips are too red…they hurt me.’ The vivid red
‘Tulips’ is a poem that was written by Sylvia Plath in 1961 and was published after her death in 1965. Plath wrote this poem while recovering in hospital after recently having a miscarriage and having an appendectomy. This poem, set in the hospital, expresses Plath’s feelings and emotions at this time in her life.
Nature and the natural world are themes, which are portrayed, in a negative light in many of Plath’s poems, ‘Tulips’ included. She saw nature as a threat, and something that oppressed her, exposed her or caused her pain. In her poem ‘Tulips’ nature, specifically the tulips themselves, are personified which causes her to be reminded of life, her troubled childhood and unhappy marriage, something that she wishes to escape from.
The tulips are described as ‘too excitable’ in the first stanza, they are an annoyance to Plath as she achieved a calm and peaceful state of mind during her time in hospital, ‘I am learning peacefulness,’ but the tulips are destroying this tranquil atmosphere. The tulips present nature as something obtrusive in this stanza as well something that is out of place in the quiet, white, man-made and sterile environment of the hospital.
However, in the third stanza the imagery linked to nature is quite calming and soothing. Sylvia Plath’s ‘body is a pebble’, the nurses
‘tend it as water Tends to the pebbles’ this shows that Plath sees the nurses caring for her as water flowing over a pebble and wearing it down slowly and gently, which is a chilling but beautiful and serene image at the same time. This is a great contrast to the portrayal of nature through the destructive and threatening tulips throughout the rest of the poem.
The tulips interrupt the poet’s expression of thoughts and feelings throughout the poem. The presence of these tulips and their bright colour causes her pain, ‘the tulips are too red…they hurt me.’ The vivid red