Introduction
sylvia plath was one of the most prominent american poets of the twentieth century. She
was born 1932 in boston,massachusetts,USA,to a midle class parents. Hermother
aurelia,who had austrian descent,was a master's student at Boston University. Otto sylvia's
father was an immigrant from Germany. he was aprofessor ofGerman,Zeology and an
expertof bees at
Boston Univesity. He suffered from lengthy illness and died due to compilaton of
diabets,only fe days after sylvia's 8th birthday.Both sylvia's mother and father affected her
lifa . she had unhealthy union with her mother whom she viewed selfless mother that lived
through her children and their achievments. In addition, sylvia's experience with her father's
sufferings,illness and early death influnced her thinking. sylvia was Unitarian Cristian, that is,
inspite ofbeing Cristian, she did not believe in trinity. through out her life she had mixed
feelings towards religion (''Sylvi'' par.1,4 ;''Biography'' par.1;''Biography''par.1;''Moses'' par.5).
Sylvia plath was an exceptional,intelligent and model student who showed earlyliterary
promise. Her first poem was published when she was only eight years old . She also had
her diaries published as ''The Jounals of Sylvia Plath'' at the age of eleven.sylvia continued
publishing poems and short stories in American magazine.He first awarded story
was''sunday at the Minton's'' (''Biography'' par .1;''Sylvia'' par. 1 ;''Sylvia'' par. 3 ;''Sylvia'' par .1).
At Smith College , plath recieved the position of "guest editor" at mademoiselle
magazine after her third year of college; and therefore she spent a month in new york city.
The experience of this period was detailed by Sylvia in her autobiographical novel The Bell
Jar which was considered an early voice of the women movment. in her junior year at Smith
College, plath made her first medically documented suicide attempt by swallowing sleeping
bills. As result, she had to subject to elctroshockand psychotherapy in a private hospital.
Recovered after six months, Plath returned to her usual a cademic and literary success (''Sylvia'' par.5).
Sylvia plath graduated with honors from Smith College and obtaaind aFulbright scholarrship
to study at Cambridge University,in England,where she attended seminas by Robert Lowly
whose confessional style profoundly impacted her.Plath met the English poet ted Haughs in
England and they got married after short time In England , Plath published her first
collection of poetry''The Colossus'' in 1960. Inthe same year, Plath have birth to Freda,and
two years later she gave birth to Nicholaaaaas. In the same year [1962] she and Haaughes
separated due to Haughes infedylity.Plath discovered her husband's affair with German
women called Assia Gutman Wevil. After Haughes' departure Plath lived in a small flat in
london with her two children. although she was ill,Plath had to work and to write due to her
need of money. In this deep depression,Plath produced some of the most powerfull
poems some of which were published inher second collection of poetry''Ariel''. At the age
of thirty,one of the morning of February1963 and during one of the coldest and worst
winters in the centuries,Sylvia Plath ended her own life using acooking gass (''Sylvia'' par .3-
6; ''Sylvia''par. 6; ''Biography'' par. 4,5).
plath's literary reputation was increased due to her carfully cafted pieces of poety espetially
those very late ones.Haughes was the one who edited and published Plath second
collection of poetry ''Ariel'' two years after her suicide.Ariel attained very high sales in UK
and USA and become one of the most important books of poetry in the 20 th
century.''Crossing the Water'' and ''Winter Trees'' are anothe two,but small collections that
were later published.In 1982 Plath become the first poet to win Plitzer Prize for Poetry
posthumously for The collected poems (''Sylvia par.7; Sylvia par.9).
Sylvia Plath's poetry belonged to the confessional poetry that emerged in the late 1960s.It
deals with new subject matters that were not openly discussed before in America; such as
trauma, depression, suicide attempts, and feelings about death in an autobiographical
manner usually with the pronoun ''I''.The term ''confessional'' wasfirst coined by the critic.M.
L.Rosenthal to describe the poetry of poets who shared distinguishing characteristicsof the
poetry; such as Robert Lowell ''the father of confessional poets'' , Sylvia Plath, Anne
Sexton, W.D.sondgrass, John Berryman and others.The word ''confesstional'' indicates
aconfesstional poet's need to confess somthing for someone in ordre to attain
psychological relief(''A Brief'' par.1,2; ''Confessional'' par.1,2; Abou sief 3).
Sylvia Plath had certain prevailing issues intensely and frankly discussed in her poetry;
such as personal feelings and experiences (fear, loneliness, depression, psychological
disorder, and relationships wwith her parents and her husband); ideas of feminism and
women position in amale-dominated society,as well as death and suicide attempts (''Plath's
par.2; Paper on par.2).
The following research paper are to reveal how far Sylvia Plath's life and literarytrends are
reflected in her poetry.The twenty poems in focus are representatvies of many aspects of
her poetry.
Conclusion
Upon analyzing twenty poems of Sylvia Plath' poetry, certain features are noticable in her
witings.First, her poems range in length from short lined poems to longer verse.This variety
of length has variety of effect on the reader.Second, Plath usually writes her poems in afree
verse style.Most of her poems have no regular meter or rhyme-scheme.However, there are
other musical elements in her poems; such as sound forms in alliteration, assonanance,
consonance, and repeated words.Third, there are certain topics plath talks about in her
poems and the themes of her poetry centered around herself and those who are related to
her. Forth, thoughout her poems, Plath uses certain devices heavily . For instance, she uses allusions, metaphors(espetially extended metaphors )and symbolizm ,
.Colours are also refered to by plath to evoke acertain sensations in the reader (''what
is''par.5; ''plath's''par.1).
All these elements are reflected in the previous twenty poems.Thus , the previous analized
poems represent plath's poetry and reflect her life and literary trends .In general,through
her poetry plath wants to talk about or confess personal details of her life in general so that
she would attain akind of psychological relief.It really interesting to find out one's life and
character throughout her or his writings.
موضوع: The famous Ameican poet Sylvia Plath 
الثلاثاء 22 أبريل 2008, 04:21
