Misery of Sylvia Plath Essay -- Poetry

Sylvia Plath: Slanting the Scale of Misery It is often the dismal and gloomy poems that compel us as readers to wonder what was occurring in the poet’s mind, rather than the rhymes of flowers and sunshine. Poems about despair and sadness induce our own emotions and generate speculation as to how such negative thoughts transfer from one’s own mind to the paper, maintaining their sense of torment. Sylvia Plath’s inner suffering is effectively conveyed by way of her disturbing images and noticeable language. To communicate her private pain, she uses a mass event, the Holocaust, as her own expression and by doing so she is robbing the true victims of this historically tragic event for her personal representation. Plath is a Massachusetts native who sustained an exterior perfection throughout her childhood and into her early years at Smith College. However, the death of her father years before seemed to hold lasting distress upon her and a few years into her college career she attempted to commit suicide, which proved to be only the start of her emotional trepidations. After college, she married the English poet, Ted Hughes, with whom she moved back and forth from London to Massachusetts and eventually had two children. After suspicions of infidelity their unstable marriage came to an end. Plath remained in London with her children where she continued writing. Ultimately, during one of the coldest winters on record, her loneliness overcame her ambition and Sylvia Plath killed herself. It was a tragic end to an even more tragically forlorn life, but she left the world with admirable literary works to remember her by. (www.sylviaplath.info) Plath’s poems are recognized for their personally honest annotations of he... ...lved in the Holocaust. To say that Sylvia Plath is a Holocaust writer is incorrect. To say that she attempted to compare her sorrows to that of years of severe suffering by millions accurate. To say that Sylvia Plath’s comparison is shocking and offensive is correct. Works Cited Kutner, Bob. "Bob Kutner: Lamp Shade Made Out of Skin." Holocaust Memorial Day. 26 Nov. 2007 _kutner/lamp_shade_made_out_of_skin.htm>. Olidort, Shoshana. "Sylvia Plath and the Holocaust." The Commentator. 22 Nov. 2005. 26 Nov. 2007 Culture/Sylvia.Plath.And.The.Holocaust-1058400-page2.shtml>. Steinberg, Peter K. "A Celebration, This Is." Biography. 5 Nov. 2002. 26 Nov. 2007 .