Sylvia Plath

Question 1

To whom does the poet compare herself in “Lady Lazarus”?

Answer 1

Besides the obvious, Lazarus from the Bible, the poet compares herself to a Holocaust victim and uses lots of Holocaust imagery.

Question 2

Lady Lazarus: How often does the poet die?

Answer 2

Once every 10 years

Question 3

Lady Lazarus: To what other of Plath’s poems is this one often discussed? Why?

Answer 3

Daddy

• Both use Holocaust imagery
• Both reference Plath’s/the speaker’s suicide attempt

Question 4

Lady Lazarus: To what Romantic Quals poem might this make a reference?

Answer 4

Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” (“Beware, Beware” and the bit about hair)

Question 5

What is an enjambment?

Answer 5

When a phrase carries over a major line break without a natural pause.

Question 6

Daddy: Of what origin is the speaker’s father?

Answer 6

German

Question 7

Daddy: What complex did Plath say that the speaker of this poem suffered?

Answer 7

An Electra Complex (Oedipal Complex but for girls)

Question 8

The Applicant: How are women referred to in this poem?

Answer 8

As “it” (Will you marry it; It can sew, it can cook)

Question 9

The Applicant: What two “remedies” are women described as being?

Answer 9

A poultice for man’s hole and an image for his eye.

Question 10

Child: How long before Plath’s death was this written? Who is it about?

Answer 10

About 2 weeks; probably her son Nicholas

Question 11

Child: What sentiment is conveyed in this poem?

Answer 11

The speaker calls her child’s eye “the one absolutely beautiful thing.” She wants to show it a lively and colorful world full of beauty and joy, but worries instead about it seeing “wringing of hands” and “this dark ceiling without a star.”

The poem seems to convey anxiety that the speaker, in her depression, is an unworthy guardian for an innocent child. “This dark ceiling without a star” could also be the world in general, but it’s hard to to connect it more closely with Plath’s life.

Question 12

Fever 103: What question begins this poem?

Answer 12

Pure?

Question 13

Fever 103: What statement about motherhood is conveyed in this poem?

Answer 13

“Hothouse baby in its crib
The ghastly orchid”

In this description, the speaker/mother sees her child as exotic, wonderful, and ghastly, suggesting that she loves her child but is also unsettled by the responsibilities of motherhood and the identity of “mother.”

Question 14

Fever 103: What is the sentiment of this poem?

Answer 14

The speaker describes the physical and mental sensations of a high fever. It is painful and disorienting, alienating her from her lover and child, but also brings her a kind of transcendence and purity.

Question 15

Who wrote the introduction to Ariel?

Answer 15

Robert Lowell

Question 16

Poppies in October: What sentiment is expressed in this poem?

Answer 16

The speaker remarks upon the unexpected and almost unearthly bright beauty of seeing colorful poppies in October. Their color seems at odds with the dull world and the people living in it, and make the speaker question her being - what is she in a world that contains Poppies in October? This is not the time of year for this flower to appear - maybe she shouldn’t be here either.

Question 17

Poppies in October: Though this poem celebrates the beauty of nature, what subtle references can we see that connect it to Plath’s fixations on death/suicide?

Answer 17

• Woman dying in the ambulance

- “ignited by carbon monoxide”

Question 18

Edge: What is this poem most known for?

Answer 18

Being the last one that Plath wrote

Question 19

The Hanging Man: What is one explanation for the electricity imagery Plath uses in this poem?

Answer 19

That is refers to the electroshock therapy she underwent after her suicide attempt.

Question 20

The Hanging Man: Who is the “he” referred to?

Answer 20

"”If he were I, he would do what I did”

• Could be the God who has her by the hair, as mentioned in the first line
• Could be the Hanging Man referenced in the poem’s title
• Could be a general “he”; if men were subject to the same social limitations and trials as motherhood as women were, they would do the same thing (ie, commit suicide)

Question 21

Edge: What is the general conceit of this poem?

Answer 21

A dead woman is described as a classical marble statue. Her dead children are “folded back into herself” and the moon isn’t sad about her passing - it sees this kind of thing every day.

Question 22

Edge: How might we see this poem as an Elegy?

Answer 22

I see the elegy comparisons as most evident in two places. First, the classical connection - the dead woman is a marble statue in the classical style. This throwback to classical conceits is typical of many elegies, and statuary is often a kind of funerary monument.

Second, the moon doesn’t weep or feel sadness looking down over this scene. In poems like “Adonias” or other elegies for poets, all of nature and the world mourns the passing of a poet. In this instance, the moon just can’t summon the energy to be sad about this woman’s death, because it’s something she sees all too often. (Particular resonance if we imagine that Plath is writing a kind of elegy for herself.)

Question 23

Wintering: What is literally being described in this poem?

Answer 23

A bee colony Plath is keeping in her cellar during the winter.

Question 24

Wintering: What might the six jars of honey refer to?

Answer 24

The six years that Plath was married to Ted Hughes

Question 25

How does Robert Lowell characterize “Ariel” in his introduction?

Answer 25

“Sylvia Plath becomes herself”

Question 26

Wintering: What is notable about the Bee poems’ placement within Ariel?

Answer 26

In the format that Plath had initially planned, these were the poems that ended the book - not Edge and Words. Those were shifted to the end in posthumous editing, and make the shape of the work more emphasize Plath’s death and suicide.

Ted Hughes is largely responsible for rearranging “Ariel” to fit his wife’s biographical arc.

Wintering, with its final line looking forward to Spring, was how Plath intended to end “Ariel.”

Question 27

Wintering: What biographical link do the Bee poems have to Sylvia’s own life?

Answer 27

Her father wrote an authoritative text on bees. (So this could be a more conciliatory poem connecting her to her father than “Daddy.”)

Question 28

Wintering: Who is winter for?

Answer 28

Women

Question 29

What kind of structure did Plath frequently give her stanzas?

Answer 29

Tercet (3 line)

Question 30

Gulliver: What voyage of Gulliver does this incident explore?

Answer 30

His experiences with the Lilliputians

Question 31

Gulliver: What is a gendered reading of this poem?

Answer 31

Though Plath is talking about a “You”, it seems she could be identifying with Gulliver, constrained by small-minded people and restricted by being a woman.

The speaker ends the poem by encouraging Gulliver to “Step off” and break his bonds - perhaps as she wished she could do.