The night dances

Question 1

Who wrote the night dances

Answer 1

Sylvia Plath

Question 2

When was the night dances published and in what collection

Answer 2

Written 1962 and Published posthumously in 1965 in Ariel

Question 3

What is the theme of the night dances

Answer 3

Family

Question 4

What is the tone of the night dances

Answer 4

Content to Depressive

Question 5

What is the structure/form of the night dances

Answer 5

• Apostrophe speech.
• Spondaic Metre Produces effect of the brevity and fragility of love
• 13 stanzas in couplets

Question 6

Quick context of The night dances

Answer 6

• Plaths son Nicholas born January 1962
• Wrote December 1962 in Flat at Fitzroy Avenue
• Nicholas was almost a year old and performed movements in his crib that looked like dancing
• Robert Lowell in his introduction to Ariel in 1965 said “These Poems are playing Russian Roulette.”
• Post Split

Question 7

Quick overview of the night dances

Answer 7

Plath outlines experiencing the gift of innocence as she recalls a time with her son, Nicholas, when he uses to wake up from his cot and perform movements that looked like dancing.

Plath shows a fading bond she had with Nicholas as she would go from looking at him with love and then into the darkness of the night with despair.

Question 8

Quick Language techniques in the night dances

Answer 8

Symbolism- Nicholas’ dance symbolises brief fleeting nature of love

Imagery of light showing fragility showing tenderness that passes.

Repetition of flake shows that tenderness passes

simile for love of her child and how these period is quick “falling like blessings”