English lit > Plath and Hughes Poetry > Flashcards
Plath and Hughes Poetry Flashcards
Crossing the water?
Heptonstall
Tulips?
Thistles
Finisterre?
Rain
Letter in November?
November
Ariel?
The horses
Spinster?
Wind
A birthday present?
The lovepet
Lesbos?
Her husband
You’re?
Full moon and little Frieda
Words?
The thought fox
Wuthering heights?
Emily Bronte
Mirror?
Wodwo
Edge?
Examination of the womb door
Daddy?
Bayonet charge
Analysis of crossing the water?
Looks at the juxtaposition of dark and light
Semantic field of death and corruption
Sirens are beautiful yet dangerous creatures in Greek mythology
Charon is the river man of Hades who carries souls across the river sticks
Analysis of Heptonstall?
Looks at death - frequent enjambment shows urgency of life and quickness of death.
Anaphora + isolated sentences creates a lonely feeling
Heptonstall is Anglo Saxon for hope
It is also a small village in Yorkshire where Plath is buried
Analysis of Thistles?
Explores themes of resilience, conflict and endurance
Written in tercets
Semantic field of warfare and antagonistic attitude
This was written in 1967, one of the first poems he wrote after his three year hiatus after Plath’s suicide
Analysis of Tulips?
Looks at themes of peace, rebirth and death
Free verse + personification of Tulips
Dehumanisation
This was written in March 1961, following her appendicitis surgery
Plath tried to take her own life in 1953
Analysis of Finisterre?
Explores themes of nihilism, religion and death
Free verse - semantic field of war
Volta - these are the pretty trinkets that the sea hides - transitions to the tourist world
Hughes and Plath went on holiday to Finisterre
Plath had three suicide attempts in her life
Analysis of Rain?
Themes of the power of nature, man v nature and death
One long verse is mimetic of the relentless rain
Fox visited Hughes in a dream to get him to swap from English to anthropology
Analysis of Letter in November?
Themes of relationships, pain and suicide
Restless imagery of change and transition
‘the wall of old corpses’ - Court Green was alongside a churchland
Written in November 1962 just after her and Hughes’ separation
Analysis of November?
Animals, nature and death
Semantic field of industrial and pastoral imagery
Critical of the destruction of nature
Enjambment across stanzas forcing us to continue
Reminiscent of Hughes upbringing in Yorkshire and his previous job at London zoo
Analysis of Ariel?
Themes of patriarchal oppression, a lesbian love affair and suicide
Written in tercets
This was written on 27th October 1962 - her 30th birthday
This was her favourite poem and Ariel was the name of her horse
This was the Old Testament name given to Jerusalem, meaning ‘God’s lion’
Allusion to Godiva - a landowner was imposing a higher tax so his wife rode naked through the town in protest. The townspeople promised not to look, except from peeping Tom
Analysis of The Horses?
Contrast between the dangerous surroundings and liminal horses
Sentence fragment - ‘of a grey silent world’ - creates a sense of isolation in contrast to the couplets
Written in early 1957 - horses are a staple of war (WW2)
Analysis of Spinster?
Themes of gender, marriage and control
Beginning in media res reflects lack of importance of the woman
Critical of marriage - 3rd stanza uses rampant pathetic fallacy
Similar stanza length emphasises her need for control
This was intended as a satire of obsessiveness and how our compulsion for control limits our lives.
Reference to ‘babel’ in the first stanza is a biblical allusion to the huge tower which god saw as a front to his authority, He punished the people who built it by forcing them to speak different languages
Reference to ‘bedlam’ in the fourth stanza, which is an infamous mental institution
Analysis of Wind?
Themes of nature and warfare
Critics often see this as an extended metaphor for an argument or strained relationship
Overloading sensory imagery
Volta in the final stanza
Analysis of A Birthday Present?
Relationships, doubt and uncertainty
Title has positive connotations of gifts and care, but also shock and uncertainty
The first line is a rhetorical question, which creates a sense of uncertainty, but veil also alludes to marriage
Matter of fact tone in reference to suicide
Biblical allusion to last supper
Written in September 1962 after their separation
Analysis of The Lovepet?
Animals, fighting, violence
Enjambment throughout stanzas speeds up poem, emphasising speed of relationship
Lack of punctuation is mimetic of the lack of control
Violent imagery is reminiscent of a toxic relationship - infidelity with Assia Wevill on top of Plath claiming he was abusive
Analysis of Lesbos?
Themes of feminism and the conflict between mother figures
Domestic imagery used to contrast gender stereotypes
This was an island associated with the Greek lyric poet Sappho, who wrote poems about love between women
Has been associated with Assia
Analysis of Her Husband?
Themes of conflict and domestication
Begins in media res, alliterative d creates sense of aggression
Written in quatrains
Semantic field of domestic and legal imagery
Explores how you can be trapped by marriage as well as 1960s gender roles
Analysis of You’re?
Unconditional love, parental relationships
The baby is a new concept - ‘a clean slate’
Happy imagery - ‘clownlike
9 line stanzas are mimetic of the nine month pregnancy
Classical allusion to atlas - he carries the world on his back
Written in 1960
Analysis of Full Moon and Little Frieda?
Themes of family and love
Cultural allusions to nursery rhymes - moon, a spider’s web, a pail cows etc which reflects innocence
Chaotic verse length reflects child-like mind
‘all the images are perfect’ - Winterson
Analysis of Words?
One critics suggests this poem is about barrenness others suggest that the poet sees her work as something permanent, with value
Isolated word creates imagery that words are sadistic
Wood can be used to make paper
Horses were a symbol of creative imagery for Plath - they can be brought under man’s control but can be afraid and uncontrollable
Analysis of The Thought Fox?
Looks at the power of nature and the futility of human existence.
Hughes had a dream in which a creature with a fox’s head came into his room, put bloody paw prints on an unfinished essay and said ‘you’re killing us’
Analysis of Wuthering Heights?
Themes about an endless relentless journey, emotion and alienation
Controlled structure but chaotic imagery
Markey - Plath’s poems about Yorkshire are ‘uniformly bleak and negative’
The book is set on the Yorkshire moors and depicts a turbulent relationship between Heathcliff and Cathy. He gets revenge on people who were nasty to him when he was poor
Analysis of Emily Bronte?
Describes Bronte’s relationship with the moors as the same as a relationship between two lovers
Semantic field of maternal/infant imagery
Rhythm was jumbled and constantly stopping.
Wuthering heights was Emily Bronte’s only novel in 1487. She lived in Yorkshire and died at the age of 30
Analysis of Mirror?
Identity, loss of youth, women and depression.
The mirror is unbiased
Sense of monotony
A reflection is a recreation
Context around Plath’s suicide attempts
Analysis of Wodwo?
Themes of individuality and purpose of life
Block form and free verse
The lack of punctuation reflects freedom and autonomy
No full stop at the end suggests that there is no end to the questions
This was in the first collection after Plath’s death
Analysis of Edge?
Holbrook - ‘infantilisation of suicide and infanticide’
title connote cliff, knife and the unknown
Classical allusion to the Medea legend where a woman is cheated on so she gets revenge by killing the children
Maternal imagery juxtaposed - children no longer need milk
Analysis of Examination at the Womb-Door?
Explores isolation - as soon as crow is born he is the property of death
Epistrophe of death
Imagery of violence, medicine and law
Pass, Crow - imperative - a higher power mocking our sense of hope?
Analysis of Daddy?
The poem is about ‘ a girl with an Electra complex. Her father died while she thought he was a God’ - Plath
Regular rhythm and structure gives the poem a chant-like rhythm
Holocaust metaphors
Reference to telephone as Assia Wevill used to frequently call
Plath’s father died from a complication form a foot injury
Written October 12 1962, the day after Hughes left
‘monstrous use of Holocaust imagery’ - Howe
Analysis of Bayonet Charge?
1957 - reflects the experiences of his father in the doomed Gallipoli campaign
Diacope of ‘raw’ is reminiscent of Spring Offensive by Wilfred Owen
Themes of war and its effect on nature
Bate - ‘nihilistic violence’
Anti-patriotic imagery
