Newbridge College
5th Year English
Revision Booklet
THE TIMES ARE TIDY - SYLVIA PLATH GENERAL Stanza three has an ironic edge. Plath doe not believe that the advantages of a safe and sheltered life outweigh the loss of adventure that was once abundant in the past. The poem is a satirical/ cynical social commentary that portrays the modern times as boring mundane, monotonous etc. Many references to fairy tales such as “lizard” and “crone”. Plath was reading Grimms’ fairy tales at the time to practise her German. The tone of the poem is cynical. Both Plath and the mood of the poem are nostalgic of times gone by but is derisive of the world that has taken its “Where the most watchful cooks go jobless” indicates sluggishness of the times but also how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer
ESSAY POINTS -A view that the world is so cruel and harsh to her and this reflects on her attitude towards it. -Irregular imagery and symbolism used in the poem including “riding against the lizard” and “the last crone got burnt up” -The poems shows the boring safeness of the modern world but beneath the surface in Plath’s’ own personal torment which are the hazards that she faces -Uses imagery to tie the past and the present together.
-The poem shows the how Plath felt like an outsider shunned by the rest of the world and out of place with modern society -The use of power is referred to the poem, something that is common in almost all of Plath’s’ work. Her referring to the mayors rotisserie shows the wealth and shows the easy life of those in powers
TECHNIQUES -The quote 'In this province of the stuck record' is like a metaphor for the modern world -Plath uses personification in this poem 'The talking cat'. As cats are unliked by a number of people and considered sly it suggests that maybe the cat is telling lies. -Repetition is used when expressing the loss of jobs 'cooks go jobless' and 'no career in the venture' emphasises how bad the times are. -Words such as 'hero', 'lizard' and 'talking cat' suggests a magical fairytale land which contrasts with words like 'hazard' which show a different side to the times. -'But the children are better for it,/ The cows milks cream an inch thick'. Throughout the poem the poet exposes losses, the last two lines give some sense of positivity but they also suggests sarcasm and that the poet does not believe the losses were worth the gains. Clever use of structure - Plath devotes two and a half stanzas on the pros of the past but only briefly mentions the gains of modern times, which shows what she really thinks.
Elm • Typical Plath Structure • Repetition of harsh words such as, 'kill', 'fear' • Experience of life at the bottom • Loss of loved one • Reference to the sea as in a lot of her other poems • Dark Imagery, 'Shadows' • Nature • Personification (gives the elm a voice) • Suffering • Self-doubt • Despair • Nuclear reference • Entrapment • Inevitability of death • Nightmare Imagery • Elm is harsh and mocking • Depression.
Mirror
General: The life of a woman through the eyes or a mirror and vice versa. Mirror sits in the room and observes everything that goes on, night and day. Different perspective on how people look at their state of mind and way of doing things. Growth --> young to old – the changes in the woman as she matures – appearance, emotions etc. Loneliness --> mirror all alone in the room with no one to talk to – has no voice or opinion – just sits back and watches. Sinister/judging --> mirror is judging and watching the woman – her reflection in the mirror is her own worst enemy. Sense of badness and mistrust – “liars, the candles or the moon.” Light vs. dark --> good vs. evil --> life vs. death. Emotions --> up and down – the mirror sees the highs and the lows.
Techniques: Personification --> another angle or view point on the story. Ambiguity --> everyone reads it in their own way, there are many different interpretations --> “searching my reaches for what she really is” Consonance --> repetition of the ‘k’ sound in the first stanza. Paradox --> “I am not cruel, only truthful” Sibilance --> “faces and darkness separate us” Symbol --> the mirror could be a symbol of Plath herself.
Essay Points: Looking in the mirror --> she is looking at herself and judging, she is her own worst enemy. Fear is a constant motif in Plath’s poetry --> fear of becoming old and losing her youth and talent. Personification --> constantly appears throughout her work – it adds another dimension or viewpoint on the message of the poem. Frequent dark tone with suggestions of regret and death.
MORNING SONG General Morning Song is a poem written by Sylvia Plath. The poem is about a mother and her new born baby. The narrator is the mother in the poem. This is one of Plath’s more positive and loving poems. Her unconditioned love for her baby is shown throughout this poem with many poetry techniques like similes and personification. Plath explains her deep love for her baby with these techniques. The mother is construed as a protector and a guardian for her baby. Her use of imagery throughout the poem is used very effectively as she describes the surroundings n the poem. The overall tone of the poem is one of euphoria. There is almost a surprising element in the sense that Plath’s poems don’t typically start nor end with a sense of elation.
Techniques Plath’s simple use of words is very effective in this poem. The first stanza begins with the word ‘love’, which is a good hint of the theme of the poem. The use of similes and metaphors throughout compare the newborn baby to a fragile, precious object. “Like a fat gold watch”. The adjective gold gives an idea of the importance of the concept compared to it, in this case the newborn. The use of onomatopoeia in the second stanza accentuates the emptiness which is replaced by joy when the chid enters the world; ‘Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival’. The breath of the baby is described as a ‘mothbreath’, while the mother hears the breathing as the sound of the sea. This description of the sound gives idea of the rhythm of the breathing, similar to the sound of the sea. The penultimate stanza the poet says ‘One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral’ and she expresses her exhaustion as she clumsily arises at the sound of her child’s cry but also her new willing and protective manner. In the final stanza Plath personifies the window as it ‘Whitens and swallows its dull stars’. Everything around her has become dull and the baby becomes the centre of attention as its ‘clear vowels rise like balloons’.
Essay points 1.The feeling of entrapment- "The window square whitens and swallows the stars�. Feels as if her new born child may inhibit her poetic creativity. 2. The feeling of estrangement*seems puzzled by her new child. Odd mother/child relationship, describes the child's cry as "bald". *anxious to know whether she is capable of caring for her child "shadows of our safety" 3.Highlights Plath's fragile mental state *Seems almost awkward and unnatural at the birth of her child. *By the end she is fascinated by the nature of the child's intriguing behaviour
Finisterre General • Berck Plage- maimed soldiers walking among tourists- reminded Plath of her father's death of an amputated leg • Ocean was a reminder of her childhood, when it was a constant for Plath • Feeling of entrapment and annihilation • Form and formlessness - fixed is threatened by formless but survives • Plath is like the peasants trying to make a living out of something dangerous- the sea is the artists subconscious dove into. Is bottomless, murky and in turmoil like the sea • Sea affects everything- taints, hopeless, inescapable • The sea hides, obscures in its depths- like the lake in Mirror- is inescapable, hypnotic, like opium • Flowers- some hope- like little fluttering hope in the corner of Pandora's box, surrounded by all the evils of the world • "resurrect" - how Plath described recovery from operation on her appendix • Sea is visible in all her poems • Drawn to unknown - fascination ( like with child in Morning Song) • Sea is the archetype of death and resurrection • Image of the angel- death of father • Society and individual views • Contrasting themes • Haunted by death and destruction • Looking for a better lace, trying to escape- sense of entrapment • Anxious/ calm • Surreal imagery • Meditation Techniques • Language- onomatopoeia "rolled" - envisage scene, "dark"- sense of death • Imagery- flowers, peasants- shows power of sea and nature. Angel gives light and hope • Uniform structure contrasts with turmoil in the words of the poem • Motif of death • Syntax- last word, "cold"- final, exact, lonely • Personification of fingers- battle between nature and humans, reminder of maimed soldiers in sanitarium • Metaphor- the sea describes destruction and creativity, life and death.
Essay Points • Fear of suffering, annihilation, unknown • Form and formlessness - conflict- between humans and nature, this world and surreal, inner conflict • Metaphorical meaning • Sea symbolising subconscious • Resurrection • Sea as a symbol for birth and rebirth • Contrast- life and death, dark and light • Angel- sense of hope, guardian, with her in hard times, as in Black Rook in Rainy Weather Sense of magic in poems- hypnotic sea, allusion to past events, statue as fairy godmother, guardian angel.
Black Rook in Rainy Weather General points Black Rook in Rainy Weather is about the difficulty of writing poetry and how she needs inspiration, how she needs a celestial entity to empower her to write her poetry. She does not believe in her ability to write poetry she believes its a miracle whenever she writes a poem and she has to wait for an angel to empower her before she can write another poem Poetic Techniques The use of light and dark is used to signify many things in this poem. Light represents hope. The ‘illumination’ of everyday objects to inspire Plath is a saviour from her constant fear of a becoming neutral to the world around her. I.e. losing her poetic gift. Dark and dull stand for the dreariness of a world without inspiration for the poet. It’s dull and uninviting to them, lacking in inspiration and art. The use of rainy weather is pathetic fallacy that supports this idea as well. Light can be equated to wisdom and knowledge, whereas darkness can be assimilated to ignorance. (Plath feared this ignorance and obliviousness) Light and dark can be connected to the world of the poet. Darkness is the search for sporadic inspiration, and light is this sudden illumination that gives their world a meaning. Plath uses light to empower everyday objects in this poem, and this poem reflects the process involved in doing so. This poem also shows the conflicting portrayals of light in her poetry. Poems such as this cast light in a positive way, as a benevolent entity, but light in other poems, ‘Mirror’ and ‘Elm’ portray light as an evil force, a ‘liar’ and ‘scathing’.
Other poetic techniques Title wording has many connotations. Rainy weather is dull, reflecting the uninspiring aspects of the real world. Weather is also in a state of constant flux. This reflects the poets world of creativity mixed with dreariness. Black reflects the darkness Plath sees in neutrality. Simile- “as if a celestial burning…..now and then”- Celestial compares the ability to write poetry to a God given, divine gift. “now and then” implies this gift can desert the beholder. Consonance in last line “rare random descent” r sound shows anger at gift deserting her. Sibilance ‘seize my senses” – quick violent interruption of a poets world to inspire them. In regards to structure, there’s no rhyming. This gives a sense of irregularity Essay Points The poem is based around the ideas of poetic inspiration and the growth and accumulation of ideas. Plath shows a sense of fear throughout the poem as she does feel that she is capable of anything other than poetry. Without idea she cannot write poems and without poetry she has nothing. She is reflecting her life as a poet by thinking like this. Like in many of Plath’s poems she does not just abruptly end Black Rook in Rainy Weather with a sense of finality. She talks about the future and looking towards the future through “that rare, random descent” of the angel. There is a pattern of mystical dream like images throughout a lot of Plath’s poetry and Black Rook in Rainy Weather is a prime example of this.
The dullness of the weather in this poem is in direct contrast to the heaving seas Plath often compared her mind to. This is an exhibition of the fickle nature of a poet’s gifts, and of the periods of drought of afflatus a poet can go through Plath adds a celestial dimension to objects to give them significance and special meaning i.e the sea. Plath sees poetry writing as a virtue, but she believes it is very hard to do. She also believes it has a role in society, as shown in other poems, e.g. mirror and a poet’s role as a mirror to society. Plath writes poetry in such a manner that it can be interpreted that different characters are speaking and this adds a completely different perspective to the very same sentences. These intransigent perspectives can be seen in poems such as ‘Elm’. Aside from insecurities in her poetic skill, Plath questions herself a lot. This shows her lack of confidence and highlights her insecurities about things such as motherhood and her personality. This can be seen in poems such as ‘Morning song’, ‘Finisterre’ and ‘The arrival of the bee box
The Arrival of the Bee Box General Points on the poem: An ‘ordered’ box arrives, it’s loud and the speaker is afraid of it. There’s no windows only a small grid and its dark inside, there’s no way out. The speaker looks through the little grid and she sees bees angrily clambering to be released. The swarm of them make loud angry noises; they are compared to ‘a Roman mob’. The speaker contemplates on how to get rid of them. She explores the option of starving them to death as she is the owner and has the power to do this but then decides against it. She wonders if she let them free if they would forget she kept them in the box all this time and not harm her. She considers turning into a tree so they would forget her. She also considers that they might ignore her as she would be in her bee keeping suit. Finally she decides to take authority and set them free. The last line ends on an optimistic note because she has overcome the fear of letting the bees go she now realises she can let them out safely without harming herself. In this poem the trapped bees are a metaphor for Plath’s trapped thoughts feelings and emotions which much like the bees she is unsure how to release them safely. This poem sums up Plath’s inner turmoil and her issues of wanting power and control. The box is her mind and the swarming bees are her trapped feelings memories and fears. The like the bees are angrily swarming around desperate to be set free. Plath is both afraid and fascinated by the box but there is a growing sense of calm in the poem as it ends on an optimistic note.
Techniques The rhyming scheme – makes the poem more effective She uses repetition of words – ‘it’s dark, dark’ The language is powerful and direct Imagery – paints a vivid image in the reader’s mind this gives us a better understanding of the poem. The imagery is surreal. Alliteration – gives direct and powerful images Striking metaphor- the bee box is described as ‘the coffin of a midget’
Descriptive writing – creates a dramatic effect and gives us a better understanding of them poem. It gives us clear pictures and ideas of the scenes. Shows a sense of feelings- fear…entrapment by the words used. Essay Points The poem resembles the mirror in the poem ‘Mirror’ as it can symbolise the inner life of someone but physically on a lifeless object. Plath ends a number of poems on a positive and light hearted note, ‘the box is only temporary’ which we also see in ‘The Times are Tidy’ when it ends the poem saying ‘ the children are better for it, the cow milk’s cream an inch thick’ . We also see a sense of confusion in the poem as to what to do with the box we also see this throughtout ‘Elm’ with the confusion of what is going on around the tree. We also get a real sense of power of the unknown which we see of the bee box throughout the poem and that we also see with the sea in ‘Finisterre’ as we haven’t seen it yet but there is a huge sense of power and fear of its power. The poem deals with feelings of fear entrapment and represents the inner turmoil of the speaker these themes occur in poems such as ‘Morning Song’ as she fears that she will lose her identity, in ‘Finisterre’ as it can be interpreted as fear of entrapment, in ‘Mirror’ as she fears old age, annihilation, entrapment and alienation and the fear of losing control, in ‘Elm’ she fears that she is without love. The first line of the fourth stanza in the poem is ambiguous, it can be interpreted in different ways ‘how can I let them out’ it can be interpreted as how can I let them out safely or how can I let them out knowing what they are capable of, this is also like the mirror in the poem ‘Mirror’ as it’s ambiguous also as it can be interpreted as Plath’s voice or the woman’s voice in the poem.