This gives me the image of Plath standing in front of the mirror and crying, rubbing her hands uncomfortably. I feel this reflects how the poet is truly feeling and how unhappy she is with her life, thus revealing a tormented and anguished persona. I believe we have all felt like this at one time or another when we have stood in front of a mirror. It may have been a physical defect or an internal unhappiness, which torments us and leads to anguish and despair. In the poem “The Times are Tidy” which is about the loss of imagination and excitement, Plath laments the loss of legendary heroism, medieval dragons and wicked witches.
Sylvia Plath’s writing style American poet, Sylvia Plath is known for both her very personal and grave writing and her death in 1963. All of the poems published by fellow poet and husband Ted Hughes in the collection ‘Ariel’ show just how dynamic Plath’s writing is. Plath’s writing style is also shown through her use of graphic imagery, language choices, structure and form. Sylvia Plath’s poems are both personal and dynamic as the whole collection is like an explosion of her emotions. This is portrayed in many of Plath’s poems through the use of graphic imagery, whether it be good or bad.
“Still I Rise” The poem “Still I Rise” is a very powerful poem written by the famous poet Maya Angelou. This compelling poem portrays an exceptional depiction of the thoughts occurring in the poet’s mind while going through the difficult struggles that have influenced her life. Maya Angelou once said, “You may encounter many defeats but you must not be defeated. In fact it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can come out of it.” (Angelou 2) This quote directly relates to the poem’s main message which is to show pride and determination to continue on through negative events one has to endure through the course of their life. Maya Angelou illustrates a sense of inspiration for anyone who feels defiance by the unfairness of the world through her words in this poem.
The narrator’s obsession with the wallpaper that surrounds her bedroom begins merely as intrigue and climaxes to a point where reality and what she imagines within the wallpaper becomes blurred. This climax represents her journey from rationality to insanity as the wallpaper becomes more twisted and alive around her. This wallpaper ultimately represents the oppression of her mind that is being caused by her post partum depression, as well as her husband’s ineffective healing methods. At first she finds the wallpaper being “one of those sprawling, flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin” (Gilman 988). This could be a representation of the beginning of her depression which was initially just an annoyance to her which she does not fully understand.
Emily Dickinson’s analysis of pain and it’s effects manifests themselves through her dramatization of pain through poetry. Additionally, Dickinson wrestles with the mystery surrounding the pain of human life. Dickinson’s poem, “After a great pain, a formal feeling comes”, shows the human reaction to pain. Undoubtedly, Dickinson’s own suffering allowed her to create a work that would examine the societal phenomenon of the various ways in which we, as humans are effected by pain of different kinds. By doing this, she was able to provide a template in which readers could further understand their own human predicament.
Exploring Human Hurt and Loss in Carol Ann Duffy's Poems Carol Ann Duffy has written a wide range of popular books and poems. War Photographer, Valentine, Stealing, Mrs Tilscher’s Class, and Before You Were Mine, each appear to portray a particular aspect of her life, be it past or present. There is no doubt that pain and loss are part of these aspects, as she includes these emotions in all of her pieces. Each poem is easy to understand, however extremely powerful in its meaning. Carol Ann Duffy mentioned concerning her own work “I like to use simple words but in a complicated way”.
The power of these emotions drive her to do what she does. The reader then learns that Medusa is now a Gorgon through the line ‘which turned the hairs on my head into filthy snakes.’ Duffy uses the word ‘filthy’ to describe the snakes to show that there is no beauty left. She also uses the work ‘hissed’ as it is a use of onomatopoeia which is used numerous times throughout the poem. The word ‘hissed’ is also a very sinister word and affects the tone that
The personas skin is described as a ‘Nazi Lampshade’ with the contrast between these terms insinuating more of a sinister glow, and in turn, a sinister opinion on her own suffering. The constant references to Nazism that are apparent in this poem create a direct relationship between her own suffering and that of the Jewish people. This exaggeration of her own misery only adds to the melodrama that runs throughout ‘Lady Lazarus’, and is a technique she uses in many of her other works in ‘Ariel’. Also in this poem, the persona dramatises her triumphant return from death, describing herself as a performer. With references to her ‘theatrical Comeback in broad day’, Plath creates a more artistic and pretentious tone in the poem, with phonological allusions to Broadway and physical rebirth.
This poem expresses the pain and sorrow of a battle that someone is fighting against themselves. Someone who is tore between her aging self and her youth. The woman knows that she is no longer a child but she’s having a hard time letting that part of her go because she feels that her youth is the only good thing about her. “Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon,” indicates that the woman turns to those who only throw lies at her, the lies that she wants to hear. Candles and the moon don’t swallow the image of what stands before them yet they reflect off a brightness, a lying goodness.
The Fly "The Fly" by Karl Shapiro, a Pulitzer prize winner has strong feelings of disgust about flies. He attempts to destroy every fly that he encounters, and he lets the reader know his opinion regarding the life of a fly, and he describes the disgusting life of a fly. Throughout the poem, the narrarator expresses his feelings of disgust towards flies. He immediately compares the flies to a " o hideous little bat" and even goes as far as to say that they are "the size of snot". The narratator also uses words to describe the life of a fly such as "you dot all whiteness with dimuntive stool" Meaning that it excretes its stool wherever it lands this is one such example of the narrator describing the disgusting nature of the fly.