Tulips

Question 1

Who wrote tulips

Answer 1

Sylvia Plath

Question 2

When was tulips wrote and in what collection

Answer 2

Wrote 1961 Published posthumously in 1965 in “Ariel”

Question 3

What is the theme of tulips

Answer 3

Death
Illness 
Confinement 
Pureness of death 
Loss

Question 4

What is the tone of tulips

Answer 4

Back and forward tone of peace and concern

Nihilistic tone

Question 5

What is the structure of tulips

Answer 5

9 stanza poem with septet lines
Free verse
With slant rhyme with assonance and consonances

Question 6

What is the form of tulips

Answer 6

Apostrophe speaker addresses inanimate object (addressing something that’s not alive)
Confessional poetry

Question 7

Context of tulips

Answer 7

During appendectomy in hospital
A month before Frieda was born
Wrote after miscarriage and before affair
Ted suggest tulips is first poem after abandoning thesaurus
Wrote quickly like an urgent letter
In her diary entries she states “i desire things that will destroy me in the end”

Question 8

Techniques in tulips

Answer 8

• Religious allusion “communion tablets”
• Simile “my body is like a pebble to them” shows how simple she is to people in this unconscious state.
• Red tulips in juxtaposition against atmosphere of the room
• Personification of the tulips “the tulips are too excitable” to show even objects have more life than her
• Symbolism “their smiles catch onto my skin, little smiling hooks” of feeling trapped into her role as a mother and wife.

Question 9

Quick overview of tulips

Answer 9

She’s in a white hospital room in an unconscious state and is happy that she feels empty she then receives red bright tulips and is reminded of the blood and tears she has when she’s conscious and alive

She desires a simple life but the tulips encourage her towards a dangerous life