Ariel

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Technically, the basic difference between the earlier and later poems is that the first were written for the eye, and the last for the ear. They need to be read aloud; they are original because she discovered in them her own speaking voice, her own identity. Sylvia’s choice of words and expressions pungently resonate in this age of gender conflict, broken families and economic inequalities, the bottled rage that derives from continuous betrayal and disappointment can be softened through Plath’s bitter yet courageous individuality. Before “Lady Lazarus,” before “Edge,” there was “The Moon and the Yew Tree.” I like to read the three poems as a group. Together they tell a story of despair, anger, and bitter defiance. All of these last verses were intensely personal, nearly all were about dying. So when her death finally came it was prepared for and, in some degree, understood.

Ariel Poem Summary and Analysis | LitCharts Ariel Poem Summary and Analysis | LitCharts

The myth, then, is a diversion from the objective achievement. For the very reason that it has an originality that keeps it apart from any poetic fads. In “The Moon and the Yew Tree” Sylvia Plath presents, not a vision of the picturesque English churchyard outside her bedroom window, but a mental landscape with more melancholy, more solemnity, more Gothic gloom than any representation of physical reality could ever have.Men are like big babies that drink beer and want you to wear high class lingerie. Okay, that's not much of a secret. Ariel was the second book of Sylvia Plath's poetry to be published. It was originally published in 1965, two years after her death by suicide. I got this job as a temp. So I was filing and I knew I could destroy them if I chose, just like that, but I didn't choose to that day. It took me a while to get through this book not only because you cannot breeze through poetry as if it were a piece of fiction. But because my obsession with Daddy, Lady Lazarus and The Applicant got in the way of my progress with the remaining poems.

Ariel by Sylvia Plath — a review and analysis - Literary Ariel by Sylvia Plath — a review and analysis - Literary

Some poems were difficult to open, difficult to find their meaning, but that just means repeated readings might open them. And I force myself not to think of her tragic suicide and her mental condition when she wrote these verses. I choose to concentrate on the writer, on the genius, on the creativity which enables suffering to become universal works of art that offer comfort and redemption, on the flowing current of feeling rather than on the scabrous speculations hiding behind Sylvia’s supposed products of madness. Truth is I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsought, some things need to be sensed rather than known, so I decide to surrender to Sylvia’s acidic voice and let the walls of this cage dissolve away and for the briefest of moments, I taste the undistinguishable flavor of exhilarating freedom. While it is legitimate to interpret Sylvia Plath’s poetry autobiographically, it can limit understanding. Her poetry also stands alone. One can read into Ariel possible references to women’s entrapment, motherhood, her failed marriage to Ted Hughes and her suicide. But the poem also has universal themes beyond the poet’s own life. The poem begins to conclude as the reader comes to understand that this ride on Ariel is more than just an accidental brush with disaster; it is a wake-up call, an opportunity (that the speaker takes) to change her way of life. In the first tercet of the poem, the reader is given a very brief description of the situation in which the speaker has found herself. (While it is probable that the speaker is Plath herself, it is not 100% certain.)This is poetry to carefully read and which chilled me even though I largely took it to me during a heatwave on a train to Versailles. It is a collection of forty three poems written during several stages of the author’s life reflecting her thoughts on her life and people around her. It also talks about the author’s mental health and the other health conditions. Reading “Lady Lazarus,” I hear Plath’s saucy voice above the bleating of the herd. If they want to look, let them look. Let them look and gape and drool.

Ariel by Sylvia Plath | Poetry Foundation

Absolutely and whole heartedly… Not just to anyone interested in poetry, but to anyone interested in these topics as well. These poems are jagged, visceral, and very, very raw. They’re angry and bruised, “extravagant, like torture.” And they are frequently charged with a dark, mirthless laughter. After all, “there is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” Or so Camus once said. This “Something else” is “Haul[ing] her through the air. She has not chosen to embark on this chaotic and somewhat terrifying ride on top of Ariel; she is being “Haul[ed],” forced along without a choice.

PDF / EPUB File Name: Ariel_Restored_Edition_-_Sylvia_Plath.pdf, Ariel_Restored_Edition_-_Sylvia_Plath.epub Book Genre: 20th Century, American, Classics, Feminism, Fiction, Health, Literature, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Poetry, Womens

Ariel (poetry collection) - Wikipedia

All of these are amazing poems by themselves, but reading the collection as a whole did in a way help me understand a bit more about Sylvia Plath as a person, which helps you understand her work better. Although the collection isn’t organized chronologically, I couldn’t help but paint a picture of some of her major life events whilst reading, which added an extra layer to her work. The language is sometimes very beautiful but didn’t touch the heart for me in a way that The Bell Jar did: As she rides, she begins to lose pieces of herself; she is shedding her past life and “stringencies” and becoming something new. She is merging with Ariel and becoming the “arrow” that will take her to a new life. The poem ends with the two charging on into the burning sun/future that awaits them. Addendum: as I was reading this it dawned on me her poems are undeniably Gothic, weird this didn't occur to me before. They are difficult, uncertain poems, some extremely obscure and all primarily dependent on central images. Formal rhythm and the logic of rational statement are both dispensed with, the main principle of organization being a free-association technique.The poems in the 1965 edition of Ariel, with their free flowing images and characteristically menacing psychic landscapes, marked a dramatic turn from Plath's earlier Colossus poems. From the original review in The Observer, March 14, 1965, written by A. Alvarez: It is over two years now since Sylvia Plath died at the age of thirty, and in that time a myth has been gathering around her work. Here are some of the passages from Ariel that I think of most often. I have always assumed that the title poem is about having sex with Ted Hughes, though I found out recently that it's also about her horse. It ends like this: ...White