ENG364Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Sylvia Plath, Lyric Poetry, Anti-Intellectualism
20th Century Amlit Lecture 4
November 10th 2016
-last time we talked about the religious imagination of flannery o’connor
-anti-intellectualism in american life—richard hofstader
-the unwinding—george packer
-white trash—nancy isenberg
Sylvia Plath
-her mature work begins roughly at the age of 24
-she has roughly 6 years of mature writing before dying at 30
-poems from ariel, published in 1965 but written in 1962
-poems were discovered by ted hughes after her suicide in 1963
-he omitted some of the more aggressive poems when they were published
-he cut out the poems that were too painful
Morning Song
-confessional poem, lyric poem (expressing a state of mind, perception, feeling)
-how much are we supposed to find of her in this poem?
-fat gold watch—cliche retirement present
-what is plath retiring from?
-or the fat gold watch is setting off the baby’s retirement, the path to inevitable death
-second person puts the reader in position of the baby, and the poet in a motherly
position
-ticking along like the watch itself
-our voices, your arrival, emphasized the difference between us and you
-echo the wood nymph is unable to speak until spoken to, but when she’s spoken to she
has to answer
-she fades away into the woods until only her voice remains
-has to speak when spoken to, but unable to speak for herself
-the cloud produces rain, which acts as a mirror, which then reflects the effacement of
the cloud
-in the image of the child is the reflection of the dissolution of the mother
-in the child is the reminder that the mother will die
-the baby cries in the night, and she gets up to go breast feed it
-then it is morning, and the sun rises (white of the window square)
-the baby cries again
-the feeling of being a mother
-about childbirth and reproduction
-cyclical
-the idea of creation and nourishment is bound up with it’s opposite—effacement and
death
-mourning/morning song
-self annihilation
Lady Lazarus
-about her suicide attempts
-suicide as spectacle: the private vs public
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Last time we talked about the religious imagination of flannery o"connor. Her mature work begins roughly at the age of 24. She has roughly 6 years of mature writing before dying at 30. Poems from ariel, published in 1965 but written in 1962. Poems were discovered by ted hughes after her suicide in 1963. He omitted some of the more aggressive poems when they were published. He cut out the poems that were (cid:1688)too painful(cid:1689) Confessional poem, lyric poem (expressing a state of mind, perception, feeling) Or the fat gold watch is setting off the baby"s retirement, the path to inevitable death. Second person puts the reader in position of the baby, and the poet in a motherly position. Our voices, your arrival, emphasized the difference between us and you. Echo the wood nymph is unable to speak until spoken to, but when she"s spoken to she has to answer.
