Two Sisters of Persephone- Sylvia Plath

Question 1

Thesis Of Two Sisters

Answer 1

Question 2

Figurative Device

Allusion

Tone

Answer 2

Question 3

Figurative Device

Assonance

Rhythm

Answer 3

Question 4

Figurative Device

Theme

Juxtaposition

Answer 4

Question 5

Diction

Duet

Answer 5

Question 6

Diction

Machine

Answer 6

Question 7

Diction

Bed of poppies

Pollen

Answer 7

Question 8

Diction

Seed

Question 9

Diction

Wormed-husband

Answer 9

Question 10

Metaphor

Virginity

Answer 10

Question 11

Title

Answer 11

Question 12

First Analysis

Answer 12

Question 13

Second Analysis

Language

Answer 13

Question 14

Third Analysis

Duality

Answer 14

Question 15

Final Analysis

Answer 15

Question 16

Line

Two girls there are: within the house
One sits; the other, without.
Daylong a duet of shade and light
Plays between these.

Answer 16

• Two girls meaning rather two sides of Persephone than actually two girls
• The use of “duet” (implying collaboration) and “shade and light” (which are both opposites) further reinforces that the poem is about the two sides of Persephone rather than two different people.
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Question 17

Line

Freely become sun’s bride, the latter
Grows quick with seed.
Grass-couched in her labor’s pride,
She bears a king. Turned bitter

Answer 17

• The side of Persephone that doesn’t live in the Underworld with Hades is fertile, like the land in the spring. The land also grows quick with seed when the conditions are right.

Question 18

Line

And sallow as any lemon,
The other, wry virgin to the last,
Goes graveward with flesh laid waste,
Worm-husbanded, yet no woman;

Inscribed above her head, these lines:
While flowering, ladies, scant love not
Lest all your fruit
Be but this black outcrop of stones.

Answer 18

• Perhaps a reference to Marvell’s line “and worms shall try / That long preserved virginity” from “To His Coy Mistress.”