Synopsis
This movement sparked highly personal poetry. Due to this, the poems covered things never before discussed in American poetry. Poets shared inner thoughts that the audience may have been scared to admit they, too, had on occasion; Hence "confessional". Despite the level of personal thought, poets still took great care in the works. Undoubtedly, this movement pushed Poets into deeper levels of poetic expression.
This movement sparked highly personal poetry. Due to this, the poems covered things never before discussed in American poetry. Poets shared inner thoughts that the audience may have been scared to admit they, too, had on occasion; Hence "confessional". Despite the level of personal thought, poets still took great care in the works. Undoubtedly, this movement pushed Poets into deeper levels of poetic expression.
Poem Analysis: "The Dead" by Sylvia Plath
The dead is poem about how the dead perceive their fate and, by extension, how Sylvia Plath perceives death. The first some lines refer to the physical dispositions and circumstance of the dead. Lines describe things such as cremation and being buried. ("Lulled in the ample womb of the full-tilt globe. ") Plath essentially makes the statement that death is release from mundane desires such as greed and violence (an indication of desire). Rather than this, Sylvia states that they seek only oblivion and not in any grand sort of way: They want only death which is defined as relief, in this poem by the description of what the dead are like. The dead, the poem states, "render love and war no heed". This describes a true peace and serenity. The dead seek death, and therefore, seek nothing else that isn't encompassed by it. Since death is only itself, they have no desire beyond it, no cares or concerns. They are detached from the world, because for them it is destroyed and so death is their desire. Moreover, Sylvia stresses that death, at least physically, is permanent. "Rolled round with goodly loam and cradled deep, These bone shanks will not wake immaculate To trumpet-toppling dawn of doomstruck day : They loll forever in colossal sleep; " The lines first refer to decomposition. being rolled in loam, which is soil, refers directly to this. And even natural disasters cannot resurrect the older forms of the bodies into forms which are less disturbing or more appealing. They are dead forever, in the earth. The lines following this truly reveal Sylvia's views on death: "or can God's stern, shocked angels cry them up From their fond, final, infamous decay. " Not even god can bring them from death or their deathly form, they are simply and powerfully dead. This poem, a reflection of Sylvia's views, could mean alot in context of her persona. I don't believe it means that Sylvia sees death in a particularly grand or negative way. Rather, she sees death in 'clearer' way: Death, she sees, not as a greatness or horrid fate but, as something that frees people from all things in the world. She takes no particular stance, and conclusively, such is not her concern. Her concern, at least in the poem, is only death itself and what it does to the people who experience it. This could parallel the contemplation of death, specifically of a loved one or of herself.
Poem Analysis: Literary Devices
Sylvia Plath uses, most importantly, a very specific dialect. She uses words which suggest sleep and peace, but strays from overly-implicating words. For instance, she uses the word "lulled" and "loll" as opposed to using a phrase that suggests a lack of life. Instead she utilizes an extended euphemism of sleep to suggest peace. Admittedly this too, can give a strong implication but, this is clarified in other lines of the poem. Since she uses overall peace as main descriptor of death but uses more direct statements to clarify it, the audience can tell that she is not actually being happy or sad or cryptic. Instead, she is being most likely reflective or rather analytic of something. It is dialect that enables this poem to carry a more exact message, without it the poem is ineffective.
This movement sparked highly personal poetry. Due to this, the poems covered things never before discussed in American poetry. Poets shared inner thoughts that the audience may have been scared to admit they, too, had on occasion; Hence "confessional". Despite the level of personal thought, poets still took great care in the works. Undoubtedly, this movement pushed Poets into deeper levels of poetic expression.
This movement sparked highly personal poetry. Due to this, the poems covered things never before discussed in American poetry. Poets shared inner thoughts that the audience may have been scared to admit they, too, had on occasion; Hence "confessional". Despite the level of personal thought, poets still took great care in the works. Undoubtedly, this movement pushed Poets into deeper levels of poetic expression.
Poem Analysis: "The Dead" by Sylvia Plath
The dead is poem about how the dead perceive their fate and, by extension, how Sylvia Plath perceives death. The first some lines refer to the physical dispositions and circumstance of the dead. Lines describe things such as cremation and being buried. ("Lulled in the ample womb of the full-tilt globe. ") Plath essentially makes the statement that death is release from mundane desires such as greed and violence (an indication of desire). Rather than this, Sylvia states that they seek only oblivion and not in any grand sort of way: They want only death which is defined as relief, in this poem by the description of what the dead are like. The dead, the poem states, "render love and war no heed". This describes a true peace and serenity. The dead seek death, and therefore, seek nothing else that isn't encompassed by it. Since death is only itself, they have no desire beyond it, no cares or concerns. They are detached from the world, because for them it is destroyed and so death is their desire. Moreover, Sylvia stresses that death, at least physically, is permanent. "Rolled round with goodly loam and cradled deep, These bone shanks will not wake immaculate To trumpet-toppling dawn of doomstruck day : They loll forever in colossal sleep; " The lines first refer to decomposition. being rolled in loam, which is soil, refers directly to this. And even natural disasters cannot resurrect the older forms of the bodies into forms which are less disturbing or more appealing. They are dead forever, in the earth. The lines following this truly reveal Sylvia's views on death: "or can God's stern, shocked angels cry them up From their fond, final, infamous decay. " Not even god can bring them from death or their deathly form, they are simply and powerfully dead. This poem, a reflection of Sylvia's views, could mean alot in context of her persona. I don't believe it means that Sylvia sees death in a particularly grand or negative way. Rather, she sees death in 'clearer' way: Death, she sees, not as a greatness or horrid fate but, as something that frees people from all things in the world. She takes no particular stance, and conclusively, such is not her concern. Her concern, at least in the poem, is only death itself and what it does to the people who experience it. This could parallel the contemplation of death, specifically of a loved one or of herself.
Poem Analysis: Literary Devices
Sylvia Plath uses, most importantly, a very specific dialect. She uses words which suggest sleep and peace, but strays from overly-implicating words. For instance, she uses the word "lulled" and "loll" as opposed to using a phrase that suggests a lack of life. Instead she utilizes an extended euphemism of sleep to suggest peace. Admittedly this too, can give a strong implication but, this is clarified in other lines of the poem. Since she uses overall peace as main descriptor of death but uses more direct statements to clarify it, the audience can tell that she is not actually being happy or sad or cryptic. Instead, she is being most likely reflective or rather analytic of something. It is dialect that enables this poem to carry a more exact message, without it the poem is ineffective.