Writing Styles of Sylvia Plath
The Life and Writings of Sylvia Plath After reading and discussing many poets and their written work, I have realized that not only pain, but any emotion that the poet is feeling, plays a large part in how the poems express themselves through their writing. I have chosen to explore Sylvia Plath and the poems she has written and how her pain and personal experiences have influenced her poetry. Similar to many other authors of the twentieth century, Sylvia Plath’s writing was influenced largely by her depression and mental illness. I found it rather interesting that her life began during The Great Depression and that from a young girl at the age of eight she was suffering and battling her own personal depression. It’s almost as though when she was born, the time period kind of foreshadowed the rest of her life for her. One of the main reasons of her depression was due to the death of her father; Plath never fully overcame the pain. The well-known poem “Daddy” reflects the pain that she experienced after the loss of her father. Many people have gone on to say that her father’s passing was the foundation of her writing. Her feelings of not being able to let go are observed in the line seven of “Daddy” when she states “You died before I had time—“. The line kind of trails off into an empty thought. Almost as if Plath has more to say to him, but just isn’t or doesn’t want to for one reason or another. I read it as though she was saying that he died before she got the chance to spend more time with him. Although, I know poetry can be interpreted in many different ways. After the passing of her father, she continued to live a dreary life. She attempted suicide and eventually got married to Ted Hughes. He was a man that was known to be quite promiscuous and one of the biggest seducers in Cambridge. However, Plath continued to actively pursue a relationship with Hughes. It’s been said that Hughes was having an affair with another author and he and