Your Ad Here
Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 45
Like Tree2Likes

Thread: Sylvia Plath

  1. #1
    Scribe PrisonerOfPrey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    /insert witty remark
    Posts
    68

    Sylvia Plath

    I've been writing for awhile now but tried to stay away from the influences of other poets. Not to mention the ones that I'd been exposed to I didn't like much. I just decided that I should study published poets and I found a woman named Sylvia Plath. She is amazing, but I'd never heard of her before. What does everyone else think about her? Are there any other poets similar that I should look up?
    Now I lay me down to sleep/
    With every passing thought I weep/
    Lead me into nights dark bliss/
    And let me wake in innocence.
    -Me

  2. #2
    Dr. Malone
    Guest
    She's great, and quite famous. I'm in the minority that I like her prose better though. Read The Bell Jar.

  3. #3
    Scribe PrisonerOfPrey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    /insert witty remark
    Posts
    68
    I'll look it up. I've only just started on her completed works. Maybe up to 43 poems so far. My favorites that I've read are soliloquy of the solipsist and Dialogue between ghost and priest. I've noticed she uses the words green and blood a lot.
    Now I lay me down to sleep/
    With every passing thought I weep/
    Lead me into nights dark bliss/
    And let me wake in innocence.
    -Me

  4. #4
    BOURBON
    Guest
    P of P... Plath is amazing. I strongly recommend you try to get hold of a recording of her reading her later poems. Reading her 'Letters Home' is also a wonderful experience. If you haven't read him yet, TS Eliot is a must read, as are Emily Bronte, John Lennon, Noel Gallagher and WB Yeats.

  5. #5
    Scrivener mandax's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    U.S.
    Posts
    177
    She has one novel, The Bell Jar, which I just recently read and liked very much. It's pretty depressing, but still worth reading. So don't read it if you're already depressed. It won't help very much. =P I love her writing style ... though she does seem to have an obsession with similies.

  6. #6
    Scribe PrisonerOfPrey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    /insert witty remark
    Posts
    68
    Ah, a little extra depression can't hurt- especially if it's well written! I'm trying to get it from the library...yarg! Oh, yes Bourbon i'll check those other poets out. thank you.
    Now I lay me down to sleep/
    With every passing thought I weep/
    Lead me into nights dark bliss/
    And let me wake in innocence.
    -Me

  7. #7
    Profound Writer
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    1,364
    Quote Originally Posted by PrisonerOfPrey View Post
    I've been writing for awhile now but tried to stay away from the influences of other poets. Not to mention the ones that I'd been exposed to I didn't like much. I just decided that I should study published poets and I found a woman named Sylvia Plath. She is amazing, but I'd never heard of her before. What does everyone else think about her? Are there any other poets similar that I should look up?
    i'm not quite sure i understand
    why you would stay away from
    the influence of other poets > ?

    *looks of confusion*

    as far as i'm concerned there is absolutely nothing wrong
    with being influenced by other poets, in fact, i would encourage such
    sylvia plath is as good as any place to start and do read her 'daddy' poem
    it's incredibly amazing, the power that women packs into a few lines, phenomenal

  8. #8
    Best Seller Mike C's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    South-east UK
    Posts
    650
    All poets are influenced by other poets.

    I loved the Bell Jar and she was certainly a fine poet, but I have a beef with her because she made it ok for generations of miserable teenagers to whine about how depressed they are.

    Further reading; her ex-husband, Ted Hughes. He was probably her biggest influence, and he's arguably a better poet.

  9. #9
    WF Veteran Tiamat10's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Western PA.
    Posts
    1,542
    I have to second the Ted Hughes thing. When I studied Plath and Hughes in college, I didn't much care for the selected poems of hers that I was supposed to read, but then I found one in the stack that was amazing. Later research revealed that it was one of Hughes' poems, not Plath's. Not to say that some of her poems aren't nice, but I just didn't care for most of them.
    "Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way."
    -Christopher Hitchens

  10. #10
    AA
    AA is offline
    Prolific Writer AA's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Dallas, Texas, U.S.
    Posts
    206
    My favorite Plath poem:

    Sylvia Plath

    Mirror

    I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
    Whatever I see, I swallow immediately.
    Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike
    I am not cruel, only truthful –
    The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
    Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
    It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
    I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.
    Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

    Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me.
    Searching my reaches for what she really is.
    Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
    I see her back, and reflect it faithfully
    She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
    I am important to her. She comes and goes.
    Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
    In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
    Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.



    I love Plath.

  11. #11
    Writer
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    The Swamp (Where Else?)
    Posts
    49
    I love both Hughes and Plath. I second getting a recording of her reading her work. Plath's poetry is so lyrical that I think that I'd love it even if I didn't speak English.

    For just plain fun, grab The Iron Giant, a children's book that Hughes wrote.
    Read my work here:

    This fall, read my work here:

  12. #12
    Scribe PrisonerOfPrey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    /insert witty remark
    Posts
    68
    the influence thing... It's just that I feel like if I started reading lots of poetry instead of retaining my ability's I would start mimicking one person. And, I feel like i'm doing really well so far. (Not that I don't read the occasional poem or two)
    Now I lay me down to sleep/
    With every passing thought I weep/
    Lead me into nights dark bliss/
    And let me wake in innocence.
    -Me

  13. #13
    WF Veteran Shawn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Indiana
    Posts
    596
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike C View Post
    I loved the Bell Jar and she was certainly a fine poet, but I have a beef with her because she made it ok for generations of miserable teenagers to whine about how depressed they are.
    Yeah. But she was real depressed.

    For good reason, as well.
    Legality does not exclude criminality.

  14. #14
    AA
    AA is offline
    Prolific Writer AA's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Dallas, Texas, U.S.
    Posts
    206
    Quote Originally Posted by PrisonerOfPrey View Post
    the influence thing... It's just that I feel like if I started reading lots of poetry instead of retaining my ability's I would start mimicking one person. And, I feel like i'm doing really well so far. (Not that I don't read the occasional poem or two)
    Actually, it's really interesting that you chose Plath as the source of your mimicking quandary. Plath is widely criticized for "not being original enough". I've heard it says that all of her poetry is pretty easily traceable to a few other poets who she was experimentally writing in the style of. So, if you let Plath be your primary influence, it will be like being influenced by several poets.

    However, I think it's silly to not want to be influenced. Simply by writing in a format that will be accepted as poetry, you're already confining yourself to an immense amount of influence from others. It's not bad. It's how we learn, it's how we communicate and it's how we create.

    Although, there is something to be said about limiting your influences. Missy Elliot stopped listening to popular music for a year while working on her last album, just to avoid being influenced by the industry. Still, without influence from thousands of others before her, there's no way her music would sound anything like it sounds now.

  15. #15
    Writer
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike C View Post
    All poets are influenced by other poets.

    I loved the Bell Jar and she was certainly a fine poet, but I have a beef with her because she made it ok for generations of miserable teenagers to whine about how depressed they are.

    "she made it ok for generations of miserable teenagers to whine about how depressed they are" because she was a fine poet?

    Ah, but Poe could never be blamed.
    account no longer active
    take care, most of you



Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •