Introduction
The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath incorporate her largest part of mature poetry between 1956 and her last periods of her life. Further, in 1981 she was awarded Pulitzer Prize for poetry which is rarely given posthumously. According to Freedman, "female speakers are typically inanimate and passive." In other words, being inanimate may mean that in the Plath's poetry there is no sign of life or everything appears to be lifeless. On the other, the "passive" condition shows the acquiescent nature of the poem. Freedman wanted to put on board that females have nothing to deliver to the audience. However, if this is the case, how did Plath come to be awarded a poetry prize that rarely bestowed. As everyone can offer their opinion, this prestigious honor was a confirmation of an excellent place in the genre of modern poetry. On my first look at the Plath's poems, I instantly came across a show of sheer intensity and attraction. She has a passionate and compelling sensation through her carefully-controlled tone and rhymes. This went along with her use of concise, but intense and rich imager in sketching feminine experience such as childbirth, pregnancy and also ability to handle death threats with complacency. Further, going through her poem deeper, I noticed how her work, compiled together portrayed a disheartening but at the same time, an attractive picture of “fear.” In this thesis paper, I will focus on exploring Ariel and how could Freedman not discover all these miles achieved by Plath in poetry and he could see “inanimate and passive” speaker.
Themes of Ariel
Basically, "Ariel" poem demonstrates a skillful application and use of consonance, assonance, slant, and alliteration. Further, the poem has been constructed as a tercet which means it has a set of three lines. However, in its account, Plath portrays the theme of the ritual journey between the center of life and death. "Death" appears to be a pretty positive thing. However, it is a metaphorical death rather than a real death as it is about woman transformation from a fearful to a powerful woman. This is more of a transformational theme in the poem. As the poem continues, Plath shows that death represents her fearfulness. The death in Plath's Ariel appears to be pretty darn optimistic. Plath uses the plight of women to illustrate oppression and subordination. "Nigger-eye berries" is a controversial reference that clearly evokes the enslavement and oppression ideas. Other references in the poem that suggest subjugation and oppression are “black sweet blood mouthfuls,” “hooks,” and arrow. Lastly, on the theme, Plath portrays a sense of adventure by use of an exciting and frightening horse ride. The pace of the poem portrays a strong sense of fear which is mirrored by the fast movement of the horse. Consequently, there is a sense of elation and empowerment created as the speaker becomes “at one with the drive.” In the poem, there are a number of ambiguous lines which can either be understood as exciting and frightening. For example, “something else hauls me through the air” and “pivot of heels and knees.”
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Poem 1 Analysis
In general, Ariel poem is about a terror the speaker encounter in a wild horseback ride, emotional and mental transformation she goes through facing death threats. In the beginning, there is a "calm" stasis and noting match is happening until when the "Ariel," the horse start throwing its headlong into a charge. At this time, the speaker is unable to grasp her neck and is now holding on for dear life. The landmarks and hills of the countryside are going past them. Unfortunately, as she rides, she starts losing some pieces of herself which in deeper meaning is shedding her past life, “stringencies” and changing to someone new. As the poem ends, the speaker she merges with Ariel and turns to an “arrow.” It is this change that takes her to a new life. At the end of the poem, the two are preparing into the future that awaits them as they are charging on into the burning sun.
Based on the Freedman opinion, it is clear that he meant feminine poetry are "flawless." This means that regardless of their inability to deliver the intended theme to the audiences, the poet has made no content (passive). However, taking a close look at the themes created by Plath in Ariel, this is not the case. For instance, looking at "Ariel" narrowly, one may think it revolves around a wild horseback ride. After reading this poem more closely, the reader realizes that it has less interest in the real horseback ride other transformation that is demonstrated by the speaker as she is riding on that horse. Such skills in the genre of the poet cannot be put into practice by an inanimate and passive poet.
'Something else hauls me' (Quote 2 and Poem 2)
The poem’s idiom compression shows the urgency of the emotions driving ‘Ariel.’ For instance, in the opening line, ‘Stasis in darkness,' the speaker uses five syllables in conveying the feeling of waiting for the dawn while sitting on an unmoving horse. Throughout the poem, the language of the author is insistently metaphorical while attempting to achieve immediacy by eliding, paring, and fusing “how one we grow’ and ‘God’s lioness.’ In this paper, the question of inanimate and passive nature of the author still remains in question. And if this was the case with feminine poets like Plath, she could not have managed to develop complex analogies. In my opinion, it is such efforts that are puzzling Freedman statement out. However, it is undeniable that Plath’s poem shows some sense of ‘reckless’ speed. Another poetic aspect that this makes Plath not passive as aforesaid is that she is devoted to an intricate visual comparison. This is between the sweeping brown curve of Ariel's neck and the curve that can be seen in a plowed field furrow. This comparison is presented on the verge and in the mind of the rider as she loses control while zooming past each furrow. “The furrow Splits and passes, sister to The brown arc of the neck I cannot catch …”
In addition, taking a ‘snapshot’ in Plath’s poem ‘Tulips’ sounds to be an evocative and rich poem as the speaker contrasts the sterility and whiteness of the hospital room with tulips livelihood. Furthermore, the main attention appears to be between the simplicity of death as the desire of the speaker and encouragement towards life in the tulips. Therefore, it is what attract her to the hospital room hospitality that helps in ignoring the complications and pains of living. With this, it ‘baffles’ how Freedman still could not see the active and lively nature of female poet such as Plath. Freedman, unlike M.D. Uroff, the latter agrees as he understands the poem as an expression by the speaker ability of the mind to ‘generate hyperboles to torture itself.' In other words, Freedman he just concentrates on general stereotypical opinions based on the female poet. Other scholars such as Barbara Hardy concurs with Plath style of communication and the way she creates imagery to distract harshness as her perspective towards life. Further, in tulips he says that “…inhabitants of the bizarre world of private irrational fantasy, even beyond the bridge of distorted science: they contrast with the whiteness of nullity and death, are like a baby, an African cat, is like her wound (a real red physical wound, stitched so as to heal, not to gape like opened tulips) and, finally, like her heart.” These are some of the poetic skills that Freedman fails to recognize.
‘ White Godiva’ (Quote 3)
This is a reconfiguration that involves casting off of conventions, clothes, and obligations. The speaker featured in Lady Godiva a noblewoman of the 11 th century who known for stripping naked to protest against the high taxes that her husband was imposing his tenants. This reference keeps back the mind of a ‘big strip tease' that was presented by Plath while performing in ‘Lady Lazarus.' There is neither doubt nor coincidence that Lady Godivas opted to take a courageous act of legendary ride for defiance of the unjust and cruel husband. This quote also generates a thesis that shows a feminine strength in the poet as opposed to Freedman opinion. Interestingly, in the poem “Ariel.” Plath is trying to liberate the feminine nature which described as inferior by people such as Freedman. As at the end of The Tempest , Prospero releases Ariel using words such as “be free,” and “fare thou well.” For the purpose of this paper, I would term the female poets as a voice that cannot be silenced as demonstrated by Sylvia Plath. In pursuit of her poem, she is ruthless like all other great poets. With this, I tend to concur with Oscar Wilde who says that it is hard to think of the poet work with life and also disagree with Freedman that “female speakers are typically inanimate and passive.”
References
Day, A., 2016. Of Death and Paradox: Examining Sylvia Plath’s" Lady Lazarus.
Francis, D.M.A., 2018. Here be monsters: body imagery in the poetry of Sylvia Plath (Doctoral dissertation).
Moser, A., 2018. ‘Linguistically Wounded’: Veronica Forrest-Thomson, Sylvia Plath, and the Limits of Poetic Artifice. Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry , 10 (1).
Plath, S., 2018. Letters of Sylvia Plath Volume II: 1956–1963 . Faber & Faber.
Rosenblatt, J., 2018. Sylvia Plath: the poetry of initiation. UNC Press Books.
Wadsworth, F.B., Vasseur, J. and Danby, D.E., 2016. Evolution of vocabulary in the poetry of Sylvia Plath. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities , 32 (3), pp.660-671.
