Preview

Sylivia Plath

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1174 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sylivia Plath
Accelerated English 11
May 17, 2013
Sylvia Plath “I talk to God but the sky is empty.” Sylvia Plath was one of America’s greatest poets. She was best known for her dramatic, emotional poems inspired by deep continuous depression and multiple suicide attempts. Unfortunately, she succeeded in the early months of 1963. Sylvia Plath was born October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts; she had only one younger brother named Warren. From the very beginning Sylvia’s parents knew she was going to be special, Plath started talking at a young age and began writing full poems at the age of five. Then the year that she turned eight years old she had her first poem published in one of Boston’s newspaper, later that same year her father died of an increased infection in his foot that soon led to gangrene. The grief of her father’s death would affect the rest of Sylvia’s life in a way no one would ever believe. Sylvia had always been a smart child; she even began school two years earlier than the rest of her classmates. Until her mother took a teaching job at Boston’s University when she re-enrolled Sylvia back in to the 5th grade. Throughout Sylvia’s middle school and high school career she continued to write and draw and every once in a while she would have a piece of her work published in the schools newspaper. In 1949 she again had the recognition of another major newspaper along with a classmate; together they worked on a response article for a newspaper. Leading into and during her senior year she had a short story and a poem published in large-circulation magazines. Plath graduated top of her class in 1950 with the recognition of a writer, artist and editor. Plath entered Smith College in the fall semester of 1950. There she decided to continue her writing career. During her time at Smith she continued to publish short stories and poems in both the college newspaper and in popular magazines. In 1952 she won her first award for a writing contest that was held by

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Module C Response

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages

    To begin, in Ted Hughes’s 1999 poem collection Birthday Letters focuses on the pitfalls of the relationship while offering insight into the conflict’s origin. In Hughes’s poem “The Shot”, he identifies Plath’s obsession with her father’s death as the source of her distress through the use of an extended metaphor, use of imagery and visual structure. He begins by comparing Sylvia’s father to a “God” and her obsession as her “worship” to him as he describes, “Your worship needed a god. Where it lacked one, it found one here”. The religious reference communicates to us the audience the severity of her devotion and also her need to fulfil it with other male figures. Hughes continues to compare Plath’s consequent actions through an extended metaphor of a “bullet”. He describes her “You were gold-jacketed, solid silver, nickel-tipped. Trajectory perfect. ” The detail within the imagery such as “gold”, ”silver” and “nickel” establishes Plath’s high maintenance and her determination through the short syntax of “trajectory perfect”. Therefore, we , the audience is presented with one of the perspectives which establishes the sources of conflict in the relationship.…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Phillis Wheatley was born on May 8th, 1753 in West Africa. She was kidnapped and then sold into slavery. John Wheatley, a Boston tailor, purchased her. Originally bought as a servant and attendant to Mrs. Wheatley, she was accepted into the family and raised with the Wheatley’s other two children. The Wheatley’s recognized her talents and encouraged her learning. She learned to read and write English at age nine, and began writing poetry at thirteen. Because of the remarkable speed of her learning she was taught Greek and Latin, and was reading passages from the bible. Three English poets had a strong influence on her, they were known as Milton, Pope, and Gray. Her poetry was published during her lifetime, which was rare for any poet, let alone…

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Throughout the film ‘Sylvia’, Plath is portrayed as a helpless, innocent young girl, who is corrupted by Hughes, the leading cause of her eventual demise. Jeff’s has depicted her in this way to allow the audience to emotionally connect and sympathise with her throughout the film. In the opening scenes, a tracking shot of Plath riding a bicycle, down the streets of London, with cheerful, non-diegetic music playing in the background, influences the audience to feel approval towards Plath, forging a positive bond between the…

    • 983 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sylvia Plath, an extremely influential and beloved female poet who lived in the mid-20th century, was the author of numerous poems as well as the semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar. Her work, especially that of her adult life, heavily reflects the darkness and depression that she dealt with. Plath, born in October of 1932, began writing at a very young age. Her first published work, titled simply “Poem”, was published before she had even turned ten. Plath wrote many short stories during her early years, and she even won several writing competitions. One of these was a fiction contest that earned her a position as guest editor at Mademoiselle…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Perhaps the first thought to mind when the name Sylvia Plath is mentioned is pure ironic tragedy. What a destructive death for a woman with a seemingly jubilant life. It is know to most that she was a poet and author beyond her time, beaming with creativity and writing poetry in her early teen years. However, with longing for fame struck the bittersweet reality of holding the title for the most unfortunate life. How can it be, that a woman struck by dire occurrences, leave such an incredible mark in the guest book of all great authors and poets? It seems to be true that many a melancholy poet, tend to be of the male gender; at least those who are greatly remembered and studied. So why is Plath one…

    • 1435 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Steven Gould Axelrod is an expert in nineteenth and twentieth-century American poetry, and his book “Sylvia Plath: The Wound and the Cure of Words” was published in 1990. Sylvia Plath was an American poet, born in 1932, and died in 1963 when she committed suicide. I totally agreed with Steven Gould Axelrod’s idea in this book, especially when he said that the poem “Daddy,” Sylvia’s most famous poem – is dramatic and allegorical. At the beginning of the book, Axelrod mostly focused on Sylvia’s life and how “Daddy” was brought into the world, then in the middle of the book, he compared how Sylvia described her father in her two poets, “Daddy” and “The Colossus,” and at the end, he continued to compare the figure “I” in “Daddy” and “The Colossus,” Sylvia herself identity.…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    When speaking about Sylvia Plath a word too often use is Tragedy, the tragedy that was her life and the pain that ended it. Plath is known for her cynical twisted writing, but never too far from the truthful pain no one dared to speak about. Plath was far more than just a sad woman who made it an art form. Plath was more than other women on the Ted Hughes list of accomplishments, she was a literary genius and was a face of a movement that 50 years later is still worthy of praise. Sylvia Plath should be known for not only her literary accomplishments but the voice she created for women too not only speak about the unspeakable but to be open about the serious nature of mental illness. Sylvia Plath’s suicide is said to have overshadowed…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Dying is an art, like everything. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call” – Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts on October 27th, 1932 and died in London, United Kingdom on February 11th, 1963 at the age of 31 years old. Sylvia is well known for her astonishing poem such as “The Bell Jar” and “Daddy”. Her parents were Aurelia Schober, who was a student at Boston University and Otto Plath, who happened to be Aurelia Schober’s professor at the time (Academy of American Poets). “In 1940, when Plath was eight years old, her father died as a result of complications from diabetes. He had been a strict father, and both his authoritarian attitudes and his death drastically defined her relationships and her poems—most notably in her elegiac and infamous poem "Daddy."” (Academy of American Poets).…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sylvia Plath Research Paper

    • 4554 Words
    • 19 Pages

    Sylvia Plath wrote these lines, from her poem "Lady Lazarus," in the winter of 1962 (Barnard 75), only months before taking her own life at the age of thirty (Barnard 23). It is an oft quoted line, containing in it much of the ironic and morbid outlook for which she has become famous. Driven by intense perfectionism and plagued by the unnecessary death of her father, Sylvia Plath crafted deeply personal poetry that expresses a feeling of incompleteness and a romantic view of death.…

    • 4554 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts. She lived with her parents Otto Emil Plath and Aurelia Schober Plath and later her brother Warren in the suburbs of Boston (Steinberg). Plath published her first poem at eight years old and was very intelligent. Some would even call her a model daughter because of her straight A’s, popularity in school, and her thrive to be perfect at everything (Gilson).…

    • 2845 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Sylvia had no trouble writing this book due to her experiences with suicidal depression. Sylvia was first diagnosed with depression at the age of 20. This depression set in due to the fact she did not get into a writing class at Harvard and was overworking herself. She then proceeded to cut herself on her thighs in an attempt to commit suicide. She was later referred to a physiatrist and they decided to start her on ETM, electroconvulsive therapy. Although that did not take to her depression. So, Plath set out on a new method, swallowing sleeping pills. Upon doing so she went into a coma for two days and was found under her porch by her family after making noises. These events described were actually in the book due to Plath writing her thoughts into her work. Plath knew depression better than anything and though it was good too write her thoughts out. In doing so it helped her cope with her depression better. Yet Sylvia was also sad as a child because her father was not there and her mixed feelings for her mother. Plath later took one final attempt by putting her head in the oven. She was found dead with her head in the oven and the gas turned…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Explore the presentation of disturbed minds in Macbeth and in the poetry of Sylvia Plath. “Is there no way out of the mind?” Sylvia Plath was an American poet and novelist. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on the 27th of October 1932 just before World War II into a German/Austrian family.…

    • 1115 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hsc Paper

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Ted Hughes’ ‘Birthday Letters’ is an anthology of poems which cover his personal view of his relationship with his first wife Sylvia Plath, a well-known poet, who’s most influential works were released in ‘Ariel’ and ‘the Bell jar’.( posthumously after her 1963 suicide) .The poems of Birthday Letters explore contradictory perspectives two of Hughes’ poems ‘The Shot’ and ‘The Minotaur’ which are significant as they delve deeply into his perspective of Plath, their relationship and private moments between the two. The 2003 film ‘Sylvia’, directed by Christine Jeff’s and is based on Plath’s own perspective. The use of slow rhythmic music (non-digetic sound) and a voice over presentive of Plath which positions , teamed with Sylvia’s hidden insecurities. Which are revealed in depth and persuade the audience to empathise with her thus contrasting with Hughes view.…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Surviving tragedies in a harsh reality is something only the strongest of souls can do. Sylvia Plath was not a strong soul. She sought comfort in the words of her poetry and in her book The Bell Jar, but it was not enough. She had a dark and sad life, and Sylvia was constantly depressed. These warning signs provided Plath with fuel for her poems, but what her family, and society did not realize was that her writings were a desperate cry for help, and help never came. Sylvia Plath, awakened the world to the ideas of suicide awareness, after writing many literary works that pointed to an illness no one knew would take her life.…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    3) Gerisch, B. (1998). `This is not death, it is something safer': A psychodynamic approach to Sylvia Plath. Death Studies, 22(8), 735.…

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays