What can I say about Literature 450?!
It took me a little bit to warm up to Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, and poetry in general! I’ve always enjoyed writing poetry, but it has always been very hard for me to interrupt other poets, so this class has been a little bit of a struggle for me. However, it started getting easier and easier as we read, and I listened to students, as well as Professor Daumer, tell everyone what they believe things meant. I started catching on, and getting decent at it myself. Being an English major, I loved writing the papers, and I actually learned a lot about, not only the poetry of Plath and her background, but also the Civil War era that Plath wrote in. I was (and still am) such a Plath lover, but by the end of the semester, when we covered the Crow Poems and Birthday Letters from Hughes, my love veered toward him. The project we did was so interesting and fun for me in my group! We, especially them, had a lot of good ideas and it just amazes me how differently people view and interrupt things! Overall, I’ve really enjoyed this class. I learned a lot about Hughes and Plath, and poetry in general.
Blog 5: The Jar Bell
After reading the first few chapters of “The Jar Bell”, I have come across both things I expected in a Plath writing and not expected. I didn’t expect Plath being in this group of rich, preppy, conceited women; although Plath is not this kind of girl and didn’t come from a privileged life, I still can’t imagine her wanting to even be around these type of people; even Doreen is not quite the “Plath friend” I would picture her to have. I thought it was hilarious when she tells the reader how she saw the vodka commercial and thought it looked refreshing and clear as water, but then I was shocked, and a little “Caution Sign” went off when she drank it and described it just as that; refreshing and smooth (plain vodka IS NOT refreshing in the least bit…that’s the last word I would use to describe it). I think this sorta foreshadows this woman is depressed and something is wrong. I do wonder if the narrator is Sylvia or another character (obviously I’ve only read a few chapters, so I’m sure I’ll know soon). I usually really don’t like when a story has very limited talking back and forth between characters, but more of a narrative story; sometimes it’s hard for me to keep in the story, but this one actually flows well for me and I like it and interested in what’s happening next. I can imagine Plath being the type of person to leave her friend (who essentially abandoned Sylvia in a way for a guy and liquor) on the hotel floor outside her room; I laughed and just thought “oh snap” haha
My favorite part so far has been Sylvia Plath’s idea about how a hot bath melts and essentially takes everything away. I am a hot bath fanatic and it does relieve the stress and just makes you be able to take away the bad things, even for those 10/15 minutes. I am excited to continue to read this and see what happens…… because it’s a Plath writing, I’m anticipating crazy things to come!
Blog 6
Although I love most of Plath’s writing, I was not a big fan of her Ariel poems. After reading through all the poems, and being very bewildered my so many, one of the poems that really caught my attention was “The Arrival of the Bee Box”. I really enjoyed this poem, and was able to understand it, because it was a poem narrative. I really enjoy poems that tell stories that are short, sweet, and to the point. This poem also had a sense of mystery and suspense to it, which I also really enjoyed. I really wanted to know WHAT IS IN THE BOX?!? I think it’s brilliant that Plath made this box so simple; “…clean wood box/Square as a chair and almost too heavy to lift” (1-2). There was nothing out of the ordinary about this box nor was it in any way special or different than any other box on the outside; just a normal, everyday box. The suspense/mystery comes into play in the second stanza when Plath writes:
“The box is locked, it is dangerous.
I have to live with it overnight
And I can’t keep away from it.
There are no windows, so I can’t see what is in there.” (6-10)
A million thoughts ran through my head as to what is inside this box!!!! I am a very curious, and somewhat worrisome person, so as I put myself in her position, I found that there was no way I would not be able to open the box throughout the night. My curiosity would have gotten the better of me, ESPECIALLY if it was locked. I want to know however, why was Plath/character in the poem not allowed to open the box? I don’t quite understand that aspect of the poem. I also would have liked more about “With the swarmy feeling of African hands” (13). How did she/the character she is talking about arrive at that thought? Was there something that alluded to the fact that African’s had some sort of involvement in this box? I know, I am probably reading too literal into this, but I can’t help it; that’s me! When she imagines there to be slaves (I assume?) in the box, the number one thing that annoys her is their language, which as we have all read by now, the dialect of slaves is very difficult to read and somewhat hard to understand at times. I find it very interesting she chooses this to be the thing that bothers her most because she is a poet and language is extremely important, if not the most important, thing in her life. I like the line “I lay my ear to furious Latin” (21), alluding to the “proper” dialect of the English language deriving from Latin, and Latin being appalled by the language being spoken by the individuals in the box. I also find it very interesting she chooses to be a yellow tree (this is what a laburnum is), but still chooses to use cherry in the same thought (it’s in enjambment) and the reason I say this is because in Ted Hughes’ poem “Red” (written in Birthday Letters) he is talking about Sylvia’s favorite color being red. After reading that, I have noticed how much she truly uses the color red, or images to represent red, which she does so again here and in my opinion she does it very randomly. I think her last three lines are brilliant in the poem, “I am no source of honey/ So why should they turn on me? / Tomorrow I will be sweet God, I will set them free.” (33-35). I love the fact that she not only connects honey to “sweet God” in the end, but also brings it back to the title “The Arrival of the Bee Box”, bees clearly make you think of sweet honey; it was a very clever twist of words. I could not find when Plath wrote this poem but it was published in the 1960s, so she clearly wrote it in the 1960s or before. This is an important fact because being that the poem is dealing with slavery/racism, it makes since because the Civil Rights’ Movement was going on around this time.
Blog 7
I absolutely LOVED Hughes’ “Crow” selection, which is really saying something since you may very well know by now that I am not much of a Hughes’ fan! Most of them were shorter, and because of that I think I was able to dissect it a bit easier. I just really enjoyed most of the poems in this section, especially “Crow’s Fall”. First off, I love the contrast of colors that Hughes’ uses in the first line, “When Crow was white he decided the sun was too white” (1). When I say contrast, it’s because when I think of a crow, I automatically see black, as I’m sure most of you do. This whole black/white dynamic reminds me of a ying-yang sign which in Chinese culture is used to represent that everything in life is not black and white and certain things cannot exist without each other; we can conclude that the black in the sign stands for “darker” things such as hate, loneliness, depression, evil, etc., while the white is the contrary, happiness, fulfillment, ultimate good, etc. Although mentioned as white, I assumed this poem is a story of how crows came to be black, I still saw the crow as black. The fact that the crow (black) is trying to attack and defeat the sun (white), I saw as a battle between good and evil. I saw so much imagery in the second stanza, although seeing black or even white glitter was a bit tough for me, and I really could see the fight taking place and imagined the fluffed up feathers (I think crows have feathers?) and even a puffed up chest from the crow, with a sharp beak. Perhaps my favorite lines in this poem were, “At his battle cry trees grew suddenly old/Shadows flatten” (9-10) because black also represents death, and ironic enough a group of crows are referred to as a murder and the crow in this story is literally killing nature by his battle cry. I love the twist at the end as well, that even though the crow loses, he still believes he won. I must admit I’m extremely confused at the last line, “Where white is black and black is white, I won.” (15), but I’m going to take a stab at it. I think the crow meant just as the ying-yang sign means, and evokes portrays the ying-yang sign image yet again by using black/white and white/black together this time. I think that the crow knows he is nature and a creature and although the sun is needed for life, as is nature. He can get to the sun any time he would like, benefit of having wings and when someone looks directly into the sun, no matter what color is in front of you, your vision automatically sees white for a second or two (at least mine does) because of the brightness of the sun. I am most likely completely wrong, but please feel free and share your interpretation of the ending! — I’m curious!
Blog 8
When I first opened Birthday Letters, I found it very interesting how big the font was and how long the poems were. This may just be my copy that I have but if it’s meant to be this way, I just find it very odd. I almost thought it was a novel verse a collection of poems. Throughout Hughes’ poems in Birthday Letters, I noticed a dramatic change of subject matter, which I must admit, he started growing on me (of course I am still Plath fan through and through!). Hughes lets go of nature and animals (though still has some here and there in the book) and focuses more on real life events. He consistently is talking to a certain “you” in the poem, which I assume most are to Sylvia, giving that these were wrote shortly after her suicide. He also tends to mention God/god a lot (“the Shot, “The Tender Place”, “God Help the Wolf after Whom the Dogs Do Not Bark, The Bee God etc.), as well as Lucas (who I assume is their son). I also noticed several poems talking about Dad/Father/Daddy, etc. I’ve concluded that the fact that many of these poems are about Sylvia, and the fact that he continually brings up “daddy” of some sort, leads me to believe that all of these poems are a reflection of his life. There wasn’t much of rhyme scheme that I saw and the tone was dark in many of them, but at the same time there was believable reality. Most of Hughes’ poems were sad, but even sadder when you think about how many of them were true realities for the poet, himself.
The poem that really caught my attention in Hughes’ collection was “The Tender Place”. Since we talked in class about the experiences Sylvia Plath went through with electric shock therapy, I immediately can see/read (or at least I think I’m right on this one) that Hughes is specifically talking about his wife ‘s unfortunate involvement in this therapy. Although painful and depressing, he provides so many images for me throughout the poem, especially in the beginning:
“of a twelve-volt battery – it exploded
Like a grenade. Somebody wired you up.
Somebody pushed the lever. They crashed
The thunderbolt into your skull.” (4-7)
This brought horrible, yet fantastic, imagery and it literally made me shiver. I can see a wired up, helpless woman on a table, while someone pushes the lever and I just imagine the woman’s head violently convulsing. I also loved the lines “The hand on the calibrated lever/Again feeling nothing/Except feeling nothing pushed to feel” (12-14). I loved Hughes’ word choice in these lines, and even the repetitive (although I criticize it a lot) usage of “feeling nothing” because I think it really puts his readers in the reality that these doctors are literally sitting, watching someone in immense pain while they are painless, and somewhat relentless. The fact that someone can do this to someone else, medically or not, just really disturbs me; I could never personally sit there and pull a lever KNOWINGLY that I knew was going to put someone in immense pain and suffering. Clearly, Hughes agrees with me and I can’t imagine being a bystander, which I assume he was and that’s why he wrote this, and watch my significant other being tortured, essentially. Another line that really stood out to me was “With the scorched-earth scar” (36). Using the word scorched, not just burnt but scorched brings terrible images to my head, and then you add the word scar and it just is a painful image to even look at, let alone physically endure. The fact that Hughes made me feel awful after reading this poem, as well as physically shiver and/or cringe through some parts really shows how greatly this is written. For a poet to be able to evoke these emotions and physicality all through words on a page is absolutely amazing to me. This was clearly a very difficult thing for Hughes to watch and go through with Sylvia Plath and with it being such a personal experience, it just makes the writing that much better.
My questions, because I always have questions when it comes to Hughes!, he tends to lose me after line 28. The first part of this poem was very straight forward, loaded with imagery and simplicity and then he gets all Hughes-y on me/us. Why does he use Boston City? Senate House? Some things with Hughes, I will just never understand but I really did enjoy this poem
Blog 4
For once, I am going to blog entirely on a Hughes’ poem! I absolutely loved his poem, “Lines to a Newborn Baby”. I think the message hit so powerfully to me because I am a nanny, and I absolutely adore kids, so it peaked my interest, as soon as I saw the title! There is a lot of the senses being used in this poem, which I feel Hughes did on purpose because when a baby is born, they have to discover all of their senses and it’s all brand new to them, and very important. I can hear that loud, physically painful crying, “Your cries flash anguish and gutter” (1), as if the baby is newly entering the world, head first! “Dropping through darkness” (2) projects the sense of touch, as the baby is going through his/her’s mother’s womb. When he speaks of the “mother’s milk” (3), it alludes to the sense of taste; I think you get my point. Hughes just does an excellent job with all of the senses, which is very important in the development of a child. I also really liked the insight Hughes’ speaker is giving to the newborn about how life is not going to always be innocent, happy-go-lucky, or easy as the baby matures and grows older, especially the lines “ There has been some trouble here, you will find./A gallery of grisly ancestors/Waits in the schoolroom.” (9-11), telling the child that school may be tough, with cruelty, immaturity, meanness from other children, as he describes as grisly, making me, and I would think most people, imagine a big, mean, bear. Again, this relates to me because I am going to school to become a teacher and be involved in the school system, and I realize how big of a problem bullying and cruelty really is. I also enjoyed Hughes’ contrast of the troubles the child may have in school, with the Garden of Eden story that portrays innocence, happiness, and freedom, until ultimately, the apple is bitten. Lastly, I am very glad that Hughes ends this on a good note, telling the baby that even with all the hateful, corrupt, horrible experiences that he may endure, there will be a smile at the end.
Oh! I feel the need to mention the obvious; there are absolutely NO animals referenced in this poem, even if grisly makes me think of a bear, a bear is not mentioned! I love animals, don’t get me wrong, Hughes just continually over does it, so it was refreshing to read something with no mention of an animal.
I am really trying to interpret the lines, “And the winner’s leisure, that one /Finished with begging to differ.” (19-20). I understand that the hand he speaks about before these lines are the doctor, pulling the baby to life from his mother’s womb, but is he saying the baby is the winner and the speaker is begging to differ? Or am I completely misreading this?
Blog 3
I have studied Virginia Woolf in a few classes and I remember focusing on her as a feminist, so it didn’t surprise me that her essay “Professions for Women”, was indeed about females and had “screw the male” undertones to it. I found the beginning of her essay hilarious how condescending and sarcastic she was about how easy it was to be a writer as a woman, as well as how she mentions women have nothing to write about, and how males have more experiences than females, again, sarcastically (at least that’s the way I took it?). She developed an image for me when she says “You have only got to figure to yourselves a girl in a bedroom with a pen in her hand. She had only to move that pen from left to right–from ten o’clock to one”, and I compare it hilariously to how I imagine Plath writing her works. Woolf’s image makes me see a school-like girl, laying down in her bed, chewing bubble gum and biting at the end of her pen, twirling her hair, and looking up as she is trying to think of what to write, while easily getting distracted; a very immature, non-serious writer, which again, Woolf is doing on purpose. In turn, I think of Plath writing her poetry very seriously, sitting completely up right at a desk of some sort, feet planted completely on the ground, anguish in her face, trying desperately to get the perfect word(s), and the exact meaning across to her audience. I really start to see Woolf and Plath’s similarities when Woolf (metaphorically) kills the Angel of the House. Woolf produces dark and violent images, as we all have come to realize is Plath’s forte, with such lines as “It was she who bothered me and wasted my time and so tormented me that at last I killed her”, as well as, “whenever I felt the shadow of her wing or the radiance of her halo upon my page, I took up the inkpot and flung it at her. She died hard.”; these lines sound exactly like something Plath would include in her poetry! Adding to those thoughts, Woolf also includes negative/dark words including cease, ghost, phantom, death, etc., again, almost contending with Plath as to who can be harsher. Woolf also alludes an extremely negative tone in her essay by using these words/phrases, but also by what her essay is about; the struggles for women that still occur. Woolf states in the last paragraph of her essay “this freedom is only a beginning–the room is your own, but it is still bare.”, which I find to again, represent Plath’s poetry, in that there may be a silver lining, but it’s never completely a “happy go lucky” situation at the end; there is always something that stays wrong/dark/violet etc.
A couple of random comments about Woolf’s essay; I find it very interesting that she is a feminist but uses the male form when describing writers as a whole, “He has to induce in himself a state of perpetual lethargy”. I understand that we are taught to use “he” as a collective, but as a woman with such passion and fire for femininity, I assumed this rule would get tossed out the window for Woolf. I also think that it’s ironic, since I am comparing her to Plath and since they have so many similarities in their writing, ideas, style, etc., that Woolf brings up buying a cat, which is a subject we have talked about several times in class when dealing with Plath.
I enjoyed this essay. It was easy to understand and you clearly see Woolf’s view point on females as writers, as well as in general.
Blog 2
After reading several poems by Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, one poem that really evoked a strong response in me was Sylvia Plath’s, “Recantation”. I really like how she blatantly falsifies the methods of telling the future, as well as calling the people who claim to be able to do it “…tricks of site” (11). I liked this poem for several reasons. First, this was a very simplistic poem, language included, and Plath provided easy imagery all throughout the poem, especially with such lines as ” ‘tea leaves…palm…crystal ball… etc.” (1,3,6). Since I am a literal person, and I am terrible at interpreting at what I believe the author means, simplistic poems such as this one, tends to evoke more emotion and understanding because everything is easily laid out; I comprehend what Plath has written. In this poem’s case, I also agree with Plath’s ideas about fortune telling being a hoax and to live your life and do as much good as you can, which again, when concurring with someone’s beliefs emotion is very easily roused. I especially enjoyed her last two lines, “And do good/With your white hands” (19-20) because white represents purity, which she is saying to be pure, and do good while you are still alive and able; I thought it was a very clever play with color. The emotion this poem evoked in me was anticipation, optimism, happiness, and even inspiration, which is very unusual considering this is a poem written by Plath! Not a single person can tell you what is going to happen in life, you have to live your life, and in the end if you are able to do good, help/be good to people, and ultimately, be a good person because of your actions, then I think you lived a pretty good, happy life which is essentially the ultimate goal of everyone and I think Plath does a great job in this poem proving that you, and no one else, is in charge of your future.
One question that I had about this poem is who is the queen she refers to in line three when she says, “On the queen’s palm”. At first glance, it’s easy to think it is the fortune teller, almost as if it’s a jab from Plath to make fun of the method’s even more by calling the teller a queen, however, when a palm is read, it’s your own palm, so is Plath talking about herself in this line or am I misunderstanding?
There was also one line that I really don’t understand at all. When Plath says, “Against the flower in the blood” (13), I have no idea what she is talking about or referring to.
Blog 1
After reading several of Sylvia Plath’s Juvenilia poems, I have already learned quite a bit about her style and methods when writing poetry. Plath’s tone is so dark, haunting, and depressing, as she writes about death, the devil, skeletons, night, etc. however, I really enjoyed most of the poems I read. Although these poems may be dark, I feel many people can relate to some of these in their moments of hate, desperation, loneliness, and, ultimately any other depressing time in their life. Plath also uses imagery, especially colors, in many of her poems. I really appreciate that after using color in her writing, there is almost always a follow up of an inanimate object that is the same color she talks about previously. For example, in her poem “To a Jilted Lover” she writes “through my window-square of black /figured in the midnight sky” (Plath 3-4). She continues on in the next stanza to talk about death, which I associate the color black to as well. Another example is in her poem, “Black Pine Tree in an Orange Light”, which is packed with imagery of the colors orange and black, along with tangible objects that correlate to those colors. Along with the idea of color, Plath is very efficient with imagery. Even if her writing is a bit dark and creepy, she does an excellent job creating an eerie image for you. The most powerful imagery for me was in her poem “Temper of Time”. Although this is an extremely disturbing poem, I could visualize everything from “…the gold apples/Go bad to the core (Plath 3-4), to the “…closets of copses/Tall skeletons walk” (Plath 9-10), and even somewhat feel the “..ill wind stalking” (Plath 1) and hear the “Black birds of omen” (Plath 5), and “With a hiss of disaster/Sibyl’s leaves blow” (Plath 7-8). This was my favorite poem because not only did she do an excellent job with imagery, but with all senses. I also noticed that Plath almost always includes enjambnent throughout all of her poems and it makes it very easy to read because it’s almost like a story, opposed to chopped up thoughts and ideas. I also feel that this style has a literal sense to it, so the reader can understand it more clearly verse having to interrupt what they think she means. Overall, I really enjoyed Plath’s creepy, dark poems and I am looking forward to reading more of them. I am used to reading upbeat, happy, positive poems and this is a big change, but in a good way. After all, life isn’t always going to go your way and Plath makes sure you know that there are dark, bad things in this world and she does an excellent job describing a lot of realities that people do not want to face, death being a main idea.
In contrast to Plath, I do not enjoy Hughes writing in the least bit. Most of Hughes’ poems involve nature, especially animals. For example, Hughes talks about a hawk and the “earth’s mouth”, in “The Hawk in the Rain”, “Relic” is about aquatic life and atmosphere, “The Horses”, obviously about horses, but he also mentions birds, woods, describes the sky, etc. I enjoy nature and animals but I don’t enjoy reading about them in every one of his poems; I expected more of a variety of different things. I also really dislike Hughes’ language throughout his poems. Unlike Plath, he is not a literal read, but instead, the reader has to interrupt a lot of what he is writing about, or what they think he is writing about. Hughes’ wording is sometimes confusing and I also dislike, and honestly don’t understand, why he repeats so many things. For example, in “Relic”, he writes, “But gripped, gripped and is now a cenotaph” (Hughes 16); in “The Horses” he writes “Orange, red, red erupted” (Hughes 19), and he is obnoxiously repetitive in The Thought-Fox when he writes, “And again now, and now, and now” (Hughes 12). I understand that when a poet repeats a word there is usually some significance to that particular word, but I’m not getting that in Hughes writing. Perhaps one of the most confusing lines to me was in “Woodwo”, when he writes “…what shape am I what/ shape am I am I huge if I go” (Hughes 20-21). Not only is Hughes repeating yet again, but this is a perfect example of my previous notion that his wording is very confusing at times. I personally don’t get a lot of imagery from Hughes’ writing either. I have read his poems a couple of times and I’ve really tried but I just don’t like his style or language of his poems, as well as his ideas. I am a very literal person, and Hughes is just a difficult, boring read for me. To Hughes’ credit, my favorite poem of his was “The Thought-Fox” because I feel this was the most literal of his poems and I did form some imagery from his writing. For example, I could follow what the fox was doing, as well as imagine the atmosphere outside. I also thought it was clever that the very first line “I imagine this midnight moment’s forest” (Hughes 1) and the very last line “The page is printed” (Hughes 24) correlated with each other only, but the rest of the poem had a story of it’s own. Overall, I enjoyed Plath much more to Hughes, but I know once I continue to read Hughes’ poems, they will become easier to understand because I will get used to his style and language.
Blog 1 