Her vivid imagery, striking metaphors and similes, refreshing honesty, wide array of emotions and background certainly made me pause and appreciate my life. Such poems as ‘Child’, ‘The times are tidy, ‘Poppies in July and ‘Blackfoot in rainy weather’, will challenge readers and give readers a different perspective in life. The poem ‘Child’ by Plat deals with the theme of motherhood. A theme which has a universal appeal as parents may have a mutual feeling for their child as the feelings Plat has for hers.
I also was able to relate the love that Plat has for her child to the love my parents would have for me and now have a renewed respect for them. The mom has a very optimistic tone as Plat expresses her hopes, desires and wishes for her child. The poem is very uplifting because of this, I even found myself smiling while reading the poem. The poem was most poignant when Plat says “your eye is the one absolutely beautiful thing”, this sweet line implies that everything else in the poet’s life is somehow tainted or imperfect.
The opening of this poem is therefore a blend of Joy at her child’s beauty and despair that nothing else in the poets’ life is similarly lovely. Through reading this poem, young readers get to understand the eve that parents have for them and the hope that parents have that their child’s lives would be better than their own. This poem is dissimilar to her other poems I have studied which are disturbing however I found this poem meaningful and very interesting to read. Her poem ‘The times are tidy is definitely worth reading.
It is about the loss of imagination and excitement, Plat laments the loss of legendary heroism and wicked witches. There are many emotions in Plash’s poetry, most of which are sad and depressing and contribute to the tormented and anguished persona. She is very emotional of the fact that people’s imaginations are dying. She says that: “Unlucky the hero born”. This shows how she is negative about the modern world. She explains that due to modern technologies skilled individuals are now left idle. “Where the most watchful cooks go Jobless. This poem is a merciless attack, on contemporary society. She is afraid that the next generation may experience material wealth but at the expense of spiritual wealth, “But the children are better for it, the cow milks cream an inch thick. ” Although this poem was written in the sass, the same problems addressed by Plat in the society f her time are the same problems that still exist in present society, I. E. – Mechanization. In this poem she expresses a sense of regret that events that fuelled people’s imagination have ended and that the world we live in is safer.
Again, this sense of regret contributes to the vivid portrait of a tormented and distressed individual, who is evocative about the past. The poem ‘Poppies in July is Just immersed in Plash’s pain or even the lack of it. The state she describes is profoundly terrifying. It exhausts her to watch the poppies flickering, yet she purposely and knowingly continues to watch them. I personally think this is one of Plash’s most disturbing poems. In this poem we are seeing a rather neurotic and paranoid attitude from Plat. She perceives the poppies as “hell flames”.
She wishes for pain or death:”if I could bleed or sleep”. She is at a point where her mind is so shocked and tired that it cannot even feel:”but colorless. colorless”. Poppies are usually an image of happiness and nature but in Plash’s poem, we can see through her dubious and appalling honesty that even the nice things in life are making her angry and upset. She uses similes and metaphors to compare and personify the poppies to ride and disturbing images: “The skin off mouth”, “Little bloody skirts”. I am Just grief-stricken at her intensely mental anguish.
This poem has certainly made me appreciate my life and I have definitely learned to appreciate everything I have. I could never imagine anyone coming to such a mental state as to cause them to yearn for oblivion and non-being as Plat does in this poem. Lastly, the poem ‘Blackfoot in rainy weather’ is a poem written by Plat about her lack of inspiration. The poem is set in a rather bleak mundane landscape. There seems to be nothing interesting happening and Plat acknowledges this: “l do not expect a oracle or an accident to set the sight on fire. Yet she desires, craves and longs for something exciting to occur. “Some backtalk. From the mute sky. ” I think there is a lot to be learned about Sylvia Plat from this poem. I gained an understanding of her work as a poet and also learned that she is humble she is not a boastful person as she speaks of not being able to find inspiration as if she had writer’s block. “‘ shall patch together a content of sorts. ‘When in reality her work is undeniably mind- blowing and is certainly not something that Just anybody could ‘patch together’.
