Plath - Medallion

Question 1

About

Answer 1

Captures death through the snake as something poignant and beautiful

Question 2

S1

Answer 2

9 tercet stanzas

-The natural order of the cycle that with life comes death – not erratic or unpredictable

-Firm religious believer in the White Goddess and that all things in nature are connected

Question 3

S2

Answer 3

-End-stop

-That with an end comes new beginnings and a new voyage to journey on

Question 4

Critic

Answer 4

Faas “Fascination with the seductive beauty of death

Question 5

P1

Answer 5

-The emphatic opening “Gate with star and moon” places the beginning of the poem in life

-Metaphorical “star and moon” enshrouds the poem in a mystical liminal aura

Question 6

P2

Answer 6

-Yet the simile “inert as a shoelace” and unnatural metaphor “pliable”

-Portrays a man-made intrinsic quality that has forced itself onto the environment

-Environmental lens – Plath’s infuriation that nature is perpetually dominated by man’s presence emphasized further by post-war industrialization

Question 7

P3

Answer 7

-Snake remains unperturbed warm tones of “bronze/garnet” ironically portray how there is life in death, further emphasized by the “maggots’ coil” in the snake

-Plath saw a rebirth in death perhaps analogous to her own rebirth after trying to commit suicide

Question 8

P4

Answer 8

Grotesque “yardman’s laugh” sadistic ending to the poem