A Reflection From “Beyond The Espresso Machine” January 31, 2007
Posted by amanda in : Uncategorized , trackbackI’ve just had a meeting with Dr.Scanlon and Professor Emerson about the first half of Ariel and I found it really helpful in clarifying some of the issues about this study that were worrying me.
I was having an insane amount of difficulty detaching Plath’s personal life from her poetry. I knew that this would be nearly impossible but I was hoping that if I stuck with the poems themselves I would be able to see them purely as poems and not in relation to anything I know about Plath herself. I was doing this in an effort to prove to whoever might care, that I am not interested in Plath because of her tragic legend but rather becuase of her outrageously great poetry. I realize now that she sought to write confessional poetry, her poetry is feuled by her personal life and that the most important thing to keep in mind is that there is undeniable skill within her poems which prove that she was a poet not a tragedy. I could try to read her poems and pretend to know nothing about her life, but the poems themselves reveal a great deal about her life so even that would be a difficult task. So, in a revision of my origional aim, I am going to try to bring her poetic skill to the forefront and not feel quite so guilty when I find myself wondering about her personal life.
We also discussed the theme of Ariel (not that it necessarily needs a theme but…) as being something different from what i’d origionally decided. I had stated that there was a sense of illusion and false creation in these poems, and while that does exist in a number of the poems, there is a greater sense that Plath is claustrophobic, that she is surrounded and trapped by all kinds of barriers that keep her from being able to appreciate or feel the freedom of her own mind. The intense amount of stress in her poems create a feeling of claustrophobia, as well as an insistent allusion to “hooks”. Life and the stuff of life are kind of holding her back.
This of course, lead to the disscussion of sexism in the world of poetry. I was relating my confusion of emotion versus skill that I’d discussed in my previous post and it brought up the startlingly large difference in the social stigma placed on women poets (especially women poets who have emotional disorders). Plath writes in the poem “Tulips”:
“I didn’t want any flowers. I only wanted/To lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty/How free it is, you have no idea how free-”
It is upsetting because a male poet repeating these sentiments would be lauded for living in his mind and intellect and being in touch with his inner self, whereas Plath and similar female poets are seen as being out of their minds and this is seen more as a cry for help or a denial of “feminine duty”.
Plath is startlingly bold in her assertions and very clearly in touch with her feelings, and it is this boldness that causes people to constantly reassert that she was “crazy” because if we marginalize her as “crazy” it might squash other women’s desires to agree with her. I would really like to celebrate her honesty and give her credit for giving a voice to ideas that exisited but were mute.
I dunno today was great, it gave me a lot to think about and I just wanted to share! 
ps. If you’ve never read “Lesbos” you really really really should, it’s super great! Here is a link: http://www.sylviaplathforum.com/lesbos.h…
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