Masculinity, Violence, and Madness

For my group's final presentation, we discussed the theme of Masculinity, Madness, and Violence within the work of both Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. During my personal part of the presentation, I discussed Sylvia Plath's poem, "Pursuit." This poem is full with imagery matching all three of these categories. What I would like to discuss here is the poem I discussed within the group-work, "Trophies," and then relate it back to Plath's "Pursuit."

The panther? It had already dragged you

As if in its jaws, across Europe.

As if trailing between its legs,

Your mouth crying open, or not even crying any more,

Just letting yourself be dragged. Its real prey

Had skipped and escaped. So the fangs,

Blind in frustration,

Crushed your trachea, strangled the sounds. The Rorschach

Splashing of those outpourings stained

Your journal pages. Your effort to cry words

Came apart in aired blood

Enriched by the adrenalins

Of despair, terror, sheer fury –

After forty years

The whiff of that beast, off the dry pages,

Lifts the hair on the back of my hands.

The thrill of it. The sudden

Look that locked on me

Through your amber jewels

And as I caught you lolling locked

Its jaws into my face. The tenacity

Of the big cat’s claim

On the one marked down and once disabled

Is a chemical process – a combustion

Of the stuff of judgement.

So it sprang over you. Its jungle prints

Hit your page. Plainly the blood

Was your own. With a laugh I

Took its full weight. Little did I know

The shock attack of a big predator

According to survivors numbs the target

Into drunken euphoria. Still smiling

As it carried me off I detached

The hairband carefully from between its teeth

And a ring from its ear, for my trophies.

There is imagery of masculinity even from the very first few lines. "As if trailing between its legs" (line 3) is a masculine, phallic metaphor. This relates to Plath's poem because she begins by saying that the panther is stalking her and that "one day [she'll] have [her] death of him" (line 2). In both poems, the panther, which is a very masculine and strong image, is immediately being set up as a male--embodying the idea of masculinity.

Moving further into the poem, Hughes makes the connection between masculinity and the next aspect, violence. "The tenacity / of the big cat's claim / On the one marked down and once disabled / Is a chemical process" (21-24), explains that the tie pulling masculinity and violence together is a chemical process -- or therefore biologically instituted within men. In this way, violence is irreverently bonded to masculinity. 

This is mirrored in Plath's "Pursuit" when she explains, "Insatiate, he ransacks the land / Condemned by our ancestral fault / Crying: blood, let blood be spilt" (13-15). This shows that, historically, violence has been thought of in a certain way--that it's connected to men. Therefore, this connection between violence and masculinity is the ancestral fault of men--the burden they have to bare is a lust for violence in their lives.

One line that our group discussed thoroughly was the various readings of, "With a laugh I / Took its full weight" (lines 29-29). "It" referring to the weight of the panther, and--in this case--the weight of violence within the world of writing. When I read this poem, I read the line as Hughes saying that he took the weight of the violence off of her because he sees his job as her husband to protect her and shield her from the violence. And, that to him, this task it almost laughable because he, as a male, is often put up to this task. However, during our discussion, it was almost brought up that this line could be read as (since the poem was written after Plath committed suicide) the panther (or violence) coming back after Hughes now that it wasn't solely attacking Plath. 

Moving further into the poem, Hughes shows his own view of the beast (the panther) and how it affects him. "After forty years / The whiff of that beast, off the dry pages, / Lifts the hair on the back of my hands. / The thrill of it" (14-17). Hughes explains that there's a thrill of violence, and how this invigorates him. It literally "lifts the hair" on the back of his hands and the reference to "pages" shows how he believes this violence has invigorated, or "thrill"ed, his writing.

On the other hand, right before this Hughes lines up how he believes this connects to Plath's writing. "Your journal pages. Your effort to cry words / Came apart in aired blood" (10, 11). Hughes explains that as it pertains to Plath's poetry, she is trying to harness the violence in her writing. But, being unable to harness it, results in...

Continuing this quotation from Hughes' writing, he ends the thought with the phrase "Of despair, terror, sheer fury" (line 13). This shows that since Plath is unable to harness the violence in her writing, it's slowly driving her to a sort of madness. Despair, terror, and sheer fury all together are a confusing set of emotions which would drive any sane person to be confused and unable to sort out their thoughts--therefore resulting in a madness. 

Along these same lines, "Trophies" refers to "The Rorschach" in line 8. The Rorschach test is the inkblot psychological exams where a psychiatrist asks the patient to describe what they see represented within the inkblots. These exams are used to deduce underlying psychological disorders -- or, in the context of the poem, madness. 

The way "Trophies" sets up Plath as trying to harness violence and thus resulting in madness is very similar to how Plath sets up this same dynamic in "Pursuit." In the third stanza, she matches up words that are seen as "feminine" with ones that are stereotypically seen as connected to "madness" in that they're very sneaky, lurking, and almost stalking in nature. Therefore, creating the picture that as Plath tries to harness this violence in her writing, she's thrust into the world of trying to balance the two. And, unable to do so, she is thrown into madness. 

Hughes - Birthday Letters

Within Ted Hughes' work, "Birthday Letters," I enjoyed the fact that they were written either for or around the relationship he had with Sylvia Plath. This viewpoint really helped me to connect more with their relationship, since a lot of the time neither of these poets really liked to come out and say "Hey! This poem is about Ted!" or "I wrote this about Sylvia!" Up until this point, the messages behind their poems were more muddled and I had to really dig through the pieces in order to figure out what lines were talking about who--or if a poem even had a relational reference in the first place.


One piece that I really enjoyed reading was "Your Paris." It's an interesting view, even from the beginning. "Your Paris, I thought, was American" (line 1). Since Plath was from America and Hughes from Britain, Plath's view of Paris was utterly American--meaning that we stereotypically will see the word "Paris" and automatically think of romance, beauty, and perfection. We don't think about all of the pollution, or wars fought there, or anything like that. We choose, instead, to think of the stereotypical, romantic idea of Paris.

I kept my Paris from you...

The Capital

Of the Occupation and old nightmare.

I read each bullet scar in the Quai stonework

With an eerie familiar feeling (lines 9-13). 

Within this poem, Hughes tries to explain that although Plath sees Paris as this beautiful, unadulterated city of dreams and romance, that it's so much more than that. It has a history of bloodshed and war, of revolutions and, like in any city, it has an underbelly of unrest. He even explains, "I was not much ravished by the view of the roofs" (line 28). This shows that his view of the city is much darker, and in his eyes, much more realistic--a roof is just a roof, no matter what city you are in. 

To protect you from spontaneous combustion

Protected you

And your Paris. It scorched up

Every scent and sensor. And it seal 

The underground (lines 45-50). 

But one of the greatest things about this poem is that even though Hughes doesn't feel the same way about Paris as she does, Hughes continues to shield Plath from this underbelly of the city. He doesn't want to ruin her idealistic view of the city, even though he doesn't feel the same. 

This, I feel, must have been the true love in their relationship--that he was willing to shield her from the ugly reality of humanity in order to allow her to continue seeing the good in the world, if only even for a moment. Perhaps this poem actually shows that Hughes knew about Plath's darker and more depressed side. Therefore, when he saw an opportunity to keep her in the light, he decided to grab hold of it with both hands and hold on for dear life.  

Hughes' Crow Poems

Personally, as it pertains to the Crow poems from Ted Hughes, I wasn't a big fan of them. There were bits and pieces I thought were clever, but over-all I thought they were repetitive and didn't really relate to my life all that much--a lot of them were very abstract and unrelatable. 

There were a lot of common themes throughout this section of poems: light, crows, religion, science/nature, sight, life (birth, death), pain, babies, blood, and tears. A lot of these were also words that repeated throughout many of the poems. 

A cry

Wordless

As the newborn baby's grieving (Dawn's Rose, lines 8-10)

Crys collide and erupt luggage and babies

In laughter (In Laughter, lines 1-2)

The unhurt eyes were full of deadliness ...

And mouths cried "Mamma" ...

Shock-severed eyes watched blood ...

There was no escape except into death.

And still it went on -- it outlasted

Many prayers (Crow's Account of the Battle, lines 14,19, 22, 33-35)

This repetition of ideas really helped connect this collection of poems, giving it a common theme and really allowing Hughes to delve even deeper into ideas he was passionate about. For example, nearly all of his poems surrounded the idea of life and death and how religion could be tied into his life. Religion and the idea of a god's hand into his life was a major part of Ted Hughes (and Sylvia Plath's) life. To see this idea come to life within his writing was very interesting to see. 

One of the poems that I really enjoyed was "Lineage." It took a couple of read-throughs, but I finally realized that the entire list all linked back to the word "scream."

In the beginning was Scream

Who begat Blood

Who begat Eye

Who begat Fear

Who begat Wing

Who begat Bone

Who begat Granite

Who begat Violet

Who begat Guitar

Who begat Sweat

Who begat Adam

Who begat Mary

Who begat God (lines 1-13).

This section of the poem speaks the idea that everything listed has been brought into being by the first thing - Scream. In one sense, we can link this back to the fact that birth often comes along with a screaming child. In this same way, something death comes with a scream as well. One other part of this I found interesting was what each line symbolized: biology, perception, emotional, animalistic, anatomy, solidity, color, music, labor, and finally religion. All of these things connect to our life and society, and the fact that the last three are all about religion speaks to the idea that religion has become, and has always been, a huge part of our culture. 

Even though I didn't really relate to this section of Hughes poetry all that much, I did think they were an interesting, if not repetitive, read. Thoughts welcome!

"Medusa"

Looking at Plath's Ariel Poems, one particular one stood out to me because of its links to Greek Mythology, "Medusa."

The history of Medusa is a long and intricate one. Basically, she was a beautiful mortal, daughter of Phorkys and Keto (the children of Gaia and Okeanos). Her and her two sisters are known as the Gorgons--but she was the only mortal of the three. While in her youth, Poseidon (the god of the sea) was so taken by her beauty, that he raped her in the temple of Athena. When Athena found out about this, she was so outraged that she cursed Medusa--turning her hair to snakes and making it so anyone who looked into her eyes would turn to stone.

Off that landspit of stony mouth-plugs,

Eyes rolled by white sticks,

Ears cupping the sea's incoherences,

You house your unnerving head -- God-ball,

Lens of mercies (lines 1-5).

These lines link easily back to the story of Medusa, as it speaks of "eyes" and the term "stony," meaning that when someone looks into her eyes, they will turn to stone. In the last few lines, however, it switches to the "sea's incoherences" as Poseidon didn't truly know what he was getting into when he decided to make love to Medusa within Athena's temple--he didn't realize what the consequences of his actions would hold for her. "You house your unnerving head" explains that Medusa's prior beauty was
something she was incredibly proud of. This shows a woman's pride in her beauty, and that since her curse, Medusa wants to hide her head away from the world so no one will see what she has become.

Moving deeper into the poem, we realize that reading through Poseidon's point of view holds an especially brilliant way to view the story of Medusa. While many individuals may want to focus on how Medusa feels about her transformation, or that she holds a special lens within the world of feminism because many girls--when asked to describe a face of horror or anger--bring up the picture of Medusa. However, through Poseidon's view, we can see how his part in her life influenced her.

Did I escape, I wonder?  ...

In any case, you are always there,

Tremulous breath at the end of my line ...

To my water rod, dazzling and grateful, 

Touching and sucking. ...

I didn't call you.

I didn't call you at all.

Nevertheless, nevertheless

You steamed to me over the sea,

Fat and red, a placenta (lines 12, 16-17, 19-25).

Reading from Poseidon's point of view, we see how he feels as though Medusa's reach is always there with him, "at the end of [his] line," even though he "didn't call [her]." Though the way he speaks of her seems as though he still views her as the woman she was when he made love to her--"You are always there...dazzling and grateful."

Another part of Medusa's mythology is that when Perseus cut off her head, the blood dropped into the ocean and produced two children: Pegasus and Chrysaor. Within these stanzas, we begin to see this image. "You steamed to me over the sea, fat and red, a placenta." So while placentas are usually
reserved for actual vaginal births, Medusa's birth of her children seems to move the idea of a placenta onto the ocean, since that's where the myth states her children were truly born from.

Finally, we can look at the last two stanzas in order to see how Poseidon's view shifts.

Green as eunuchs, your wishes

Hiss at my sins.

Off, off, eely tentacle!

There is nothing between us (lines 38-41). 

While he previously thought of Medusa as the woman she used to be, here we begin to see a type of resentment toward the woman she has become. While her body changed, Medusa's mindset has always undoubtedly changed considering that she now realizes that it was because of Poseidon's "sins" that her hair turned to snakes and her eyes turn others to stone. This is what motivates Poseidon to finally admit the last line of the poem, "there is nothing between us." Much mythology seems to state about lovers, Medusa was just one of eighty-one different lovers that Poseidon went to bed with and produced children with. Therefore, when we look into the grand scheme of things, Poseidon finally realizes that there is nothing incredibly special between him and Medusa--just fleeting lust.

"The Bell Jar" Through Literary Lenses

When it comes to literary lenses within The Bell Jar, there are three which can easily be applied: The Mirror, The Microscope, and The Telescope.

First, The Mirror is applied by finding a reflection of yourself in the text. For me, this could apply to a variety of sections for Plath's "The Bell Jar," but for the purposes of this post, I'm going to narrow it down to just a couple passages.

"After Doreen left, I wondered why I couldn't go the whole way doing what I should any more. This made me sad and tired. Then I wondered why I couldn't go the whole way doing what I shouldn't, the way Doreen did, and this made me even sadder and more tired" (Plath 30). 

Esther Greenwood is the type of character I can relate with easily. There's something about obligations and the way they drain her that can be reflected easily within my life. Along with juggling school, and I'm a part of the EMU Forensics Team (speech and dramatic interpretation), which takes up a lot of my time. Between these two things, plus trying to keep some resemblance of a social life--and alone time--my life has become extremely hectic. At times, I stop and wonder the age-old question: WHY. Why am I constantly pushing myself to do these things when it would be so much easier to take some time off and get my life in order. Why am I not pushing myself to do more?

These two forces pulling me in opposite directions mirrors Esther's pull within "The Bell Jar." The pull between doing what's expected of her--and completely going against it--has left her in the middle, where she's not sure what to do anymore. I think this kind of struggle has touched, or will touch, every person's life at some point. Two conflicting thoughts or worlds at war is a very common metaphor, and is heavily prevalent within the world of "coming of age" novels.

Second, The Microscope is used by narrowing in on particular passages and breaking them apart in the context of the entire work. This is the most nit-picky lens, as it means completely dissecting a particular paragraph or section of the text.

"I made a decision about Doreen that night. I decided I would watch her and listen to what she said, but deep down I would have nothing at all to do with her. Deep down, I would be loyal to Betsy and her innocent friends. It was Betsy I resembled at heart" (Plath 22).

This paragraph, found in the second chapter of the novel, marks a turning point in Esther's mindset. Earlier in the novel, she felt a connection to Doreen because she wanted to be like her--she wanted to have fun "like everybody else." Connecting herself to Doreen was a way for Esther to feel as though she belonged within the world she's currently in. However, once Doreen went out with Lenny Shepherd and came home extremely wasted, Esther was able to realize that the individual she had put her money in, so to speak, wasn't the person she thought she was.

The phrase "I would have nothing at all to do with her" states it best. Esther's decision to cut herself off emotionally from Doreen, yet still associate with her, fuels many of her decisions and actions throughout the novel. Also, the repetition of the phrases such as "deep down" and "at heart" speak to Esther's yearning to be a good person "deep down" or "at heart." The way she determines whether she is a good person or not leans on the idea of who she associates with, or "resemble[s] at heart." She decides that she wants to be loyal to "Betsy and her innocent friends" because she feels that being around this innocence will help her resemble "Betsy...at heart."

Third, The Telescope is used when one looks at the text in the wider perspective of the author, history, world history, humanity, etc.

"I raised my eyes then, and saw Doreen's head silhouetted against the paling window, her blonde hair lit at the tips from behind like a halo of gold. Her face was in shadow, so I couldn't make out her expression, but I felt a sort of expert tenderness flowing from the ends of her fingers. She might have been Betsy or my mother or a fern-scented nurse" (Plath 47). 

 Although this is a small segment of the text--explaining how Esther sees Doreen while she's sick with food poisoning--it speaks volumes in a broader context. For one, we can look at this in terms of Plath's life in the 50's and feminism. Plath grew up in a time where women were seen as motherly, soft, comforting, and tender. This is easily reflected within this passage because Esther sees Doreen as a sort of angel ("...like a halo of gold...") come from above to nurse her back to health.

All of the adjectives used to describe Doreen within this passage are soft, much like how women were seen within the 1950's. Tenderness, mother, nurse, silhouetted, halo of gold... Each of these terms reflects the idea of femininity that Plath hoped she embodied during her time. Sure, she wanted to be a writer and to have time to herself, but Plath also hoped to be a feminine motherly figure. In this passage, Plath writes Doreen to be the woman she herself wishes to be--a figure of femininity who has "expert tenderness flowing from the ends of her fingers."


How do you view Plath's "The Bell Jar" within the context of these three literary lenses? Thoughts and comments welcome!!

The Disquieting Muses

One of my favorite poems by Plath is "The Disquieting Muses." I think what really draws me to it is how it maps out the relationship she had with her mother and draws the reader in with such vivid imagery--as well as actual memories of her childhood.

Mother, mother, what illbred aunt

Or what disfigured and unsightly

Cousin did you so unwisely keep

Unasked to my christening, that she

Sent these ladies in her stead

With heads like darning-eggs to nod

And nod and nod at the food and head

And at the left side of my crib?

Mother, who made to order stories

of Mixie Blackshort the heroic bear,

Mother, whose witches always, always

Got baked into gingerbread, I wonder

Whether you saw them, whether you said

Words to rid me of those three ladies

Nodding by night around my bed,

Mouthless, eyeless, with stitched bald head.

In the hurricane, when father's twelve

Study windows bellied in

Like bubbles about to break, you fed

My brother and me cookies and Ovaltine

And helped the two of us to choir:

"Thor is angry: boom boom boom!

Thor is angry: we don't care!"

But those ladies broke the panes.

The beginning of the poem is just beautiful. The imagery of her childhood that it sets up is magnificent because it gives readers a true insight into Plath's upbringing. Not only that, but Mixie Blackshort is actually from a group of short stories that her mother published, which she told that Plath and her brother when they were kids. 

But the greatest part of this, is the repetitive idea of her mother trying to protect her, trying to shield her from the evil of the world. From the ladies nodding at the side of her crib, to baking the witches always into gingerbread, and giving them Ovaltine and having them sing songs about Thor during a storm, it shows Plath's mother as a mom who just wants to shield her children from the "bad" in our world.

And the "bad" in this poem is represented by the three Fates. The picture to the left might be a silly example (it's the three Fates from the Disney movie "Hercules"), but the concept is still the same. These are the three ladies who decide who to kill by cutting a person's "life string." Those three ladies nodding by night around my bed. Mouthless, eyeless, with stitched bald head. Not only does this description show them as horrifying and sinister, but it shows how the "bad" in our world, like death, is always "looming by night around [our] bed[s]."

When on tiptoe the schoolgirls danced,

Blinking flashlights like fireflies

And singing the glowworm song, I could

Not lift a foot in the twinkle-dress

But, heavy-footed, stood aside

In the shadow cast by my dismal-headed

Godmothers, and you cried and cried:

And the shadow stretched, the lights went out.

Mother, you sent me to piano lessons 

And praised my arabesques and trills

Although each teacher found my touch

Oddly wooden in spite of scales

And the hours of practicing, my ear

Tone-deaf and yes, unteachable.

I learned, I learned, I learned elsewhere,

From muses unhired by you, dear mother.

This set of stanzas continues the idea of a mother wanting to shield her daughter from the pain and evil of the world, but it switches it to a more dismal tone--showing how, even though she's trying, she can't shield Plath from everything of the world. Plath is held down by the darkness of the world (as it shows in her writing) with how she could not lift a foot ... heavy-footed. And that even though her mother tried to teach her, she found education elsewhere, from muses unhired by her mother--the Fates and the "evils" of the world that her mom tried to shield her from. 

I woke one day to see you, mother,

Floating above me in bluest air

On a green balloon bright with a million

Flowers and bluebirds that never were

Never, never, found anywhere.

But the little planet bobbed away

Like a soap-bubble as you called: Come here!

And I faced my traveling companions.

Day now, night now, at head, side, feet,

They stand their vigil in gowns of stone,

Faces blank as the day I was born,

Their shadows long in the setting sun

That never brightens or goes down.

And this is the kingdom you bore me to,

Mother, mother. But no frown of mine

Will betray the company I keep.

Adding an even more sad tone to the piece, these last two stanzas show how her mother came to her with a last-stitch attempt to get her to stay on the "good" side of things, with bluest air on a  green balloon bright," but Plath explains how these things "never were. Never, never, found anywhere." This, in turn, leads to how when her mother finally asked her to "Come here!", over to the world of happiness and fairytales that she wanted to believe, it forced her to own up to her traveling companions, the Fates and the "other-side" of life, the darker side. 

Now, she explains, the Fates stand their vigil at all times a day, around every part of her. This is where we realize that Plath has accepted that her life and muses are darker than most--especially of what her mother wanted of her--but that she has come to accept it as her path, and them as the company she keeps. 

The Colossus

Perhaps one of Plath's most interesting poems, "The Colossus" offers a very unique view on both Plath and her poetry.

A giant statue with a mysterious past, which has thus far been knocked down somehow, is the historical background to this particular poem. Anyone interested in finding out more background information about the Colossus of Rhodes should head over to the The Museum of Unnatural History's website, where there is a plethora of details on the subject.

As it pertains to Plath's poem, the connection between the two is made from the very first stanza.

I shall never get you put together entirely,

Pierced, glued, and properly jointed.

Mule-bray, pig-grunt and bawdy cackles

Proceed from your great lips.

It's worse than a barnyard.

When I first read this poem, I didn't know the history behind the Colossus of Rhodes, and took this section at face-value. It reminded me a great deal of Frankenstein's monster and how Frankenstein had to piece this "monster" together from various parts of dead bodies. So, even though he has all the seemingly correct parts, he will never be put together entirely, nor will he be properly jointed. This imagery worked incredibly well with the idea of barnyard animal sounds emitting from his lips, because multiple animals are seen in a barnyard, not just one type of animal. 

However, knowing the history of the Colossus allows an easy interpretation of trying to begin the impossible task of piecing the broken statue back together. This is continued in the next two stanzas:

Perhaps you consider yourself an oracle,

Mouthpiece of the dead, or of some god or other.

Thirty years now I have labored

To dredge the silt from your throat.

I am none the wiser.

Scaling little ladders with gluepots and pails of Lysol

I crawl like an ant in mourning

Over the weedy acres of your brow

To mend the immense skull-plates and clear

The bald, white tumuli of your eyes.

The really interesting part of these stanzas, is that not only does she continue this imagery of putting the statue back together, but she weaved in an idea of how she's fighting a near impossible battle, but she continues nonetheless. 

Although there are many interpretations of such an immense poem, I think one that really struck me was the writer-ly and domestic relationship between Plath and Hughes. By remembering their past, of how Hughes was more "highly regarded" as "The Writer" and, since he was male, he was almost the gate-keeper for writing in their partnership. Therefore, the first line perhaps you consider yourself an oracle, leads back to their relationship of how Hughes was seen as the dominate individual in their relationship. However, it goes on to explain that she is laboring, "To dredge the silt from your throat" which speaks to the idea of taking away the small pieces in order to give him a way to speak. So, even though it's a hard-going process, she is putting his needs above her own and helping him to speak.

In the third stanza, images of Lysol bring up the domestic lifestyle of the 1950's. The entire stanza shows how she's working to clean and put together something bigger than herself, even though it's a slow-going process like an ant in mourning. 

A blue sky out of the Oresteia

Arches above us. O father, all by yourself

You are pithy and historical as the Roman Forum.

I open my lunch on a hill of black cypress.

Your fluted bones and acanthine hair are littered

In their old anarchy to the horizon-line.

It would take more than a lightning-stroke

To create such a ruin.

Nights, I squat in the cornucopia

Of your left ear, out of the wind.

Counting the red stars and those of plum-color.

The sun rises under the pillar of your tongue.

My hours are married to shadow.

No longer do I listen for the scape of a keel

On the blank stones of the landing.

These last three stanzas of her poem bring out a myriad of ideas. First, Oresteia is a Greek trilogy, during which the father-right is put over the mother-right; the woman/mother became the passive figure. This could obviously speak to the idea that Hughes was put over Plath, and she was forced to become that passive figure in their relationship. In this same stanza, the Roman Forum is an outdoor pity and historical as the Roman Forum, meaning that she believes he has gained his role by the fact that people believe him to be of good and charismatic character.

stadium where individuals were allowed to air their grievances with their voices. Ethos/Pathos/Logos were values, but it was mostly about the quality of the message and the person's individual character. In this poem, she is accusing him of being

In this same stanza, Plath says that she opens her lunch on a hill of black cypress, and cypress is one of the symbols of the Greek goddess, Artemis. Artemis is the goddess of the hunt, wilderness, wild animals, childbirth, and virginity. The important idea here is that she is one of the only Greek gods who never married. She was, therefore, never tied down by marriage or patriarchy. This shows Plath's cry to be an individual, even within her marriage.

In the next stanza--the second to last one--It would take more than a lightning-stroke to create such a ruin explains the idea of it taking more than the power of a god (Zeus) to create such a wreckage. If we continue delving into this idea, many individuals believe that only men (the human race) can create destruction and horrible as the Colossus's fall. In turn, this shows how all wreckage rests fully on the shoulders of humanity, and therefore the stigma and stereotypes forced on Plath and her husband (mainly within the world of writing) is due to society, not any "higher power." 

Finally, we finish the poem with the statement On the blank stones of the landing which, for me, led back to the idea of John Locke's "Tabula Rasa." Within psychology and child-rearing, Locke believed that everyone is born a Blank Slate (Tabula Rasa) that society and our interactions "write" on. Therefore, when Plath states on the blank stones of the landing, she is saying that--regardless of society's norms and stereotypes--she is working her best to become a blank slate... And she wants to write herself and Hughes a new story. 

Comments welcome! :)

The Thought-Fox

     One particular poem by Ted Hughes that invoked a strong response from me was, ironically, the very first poem in his book Selected Poems 1957-1994, "The Thought Fox."
     When I first read this poem, I immediately was given the image of how a writer gains an idea, or the process of the writing. Just the title in itself, "The Thought-Fox," reminded me of the old sentence: The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. It's often used in typography, due to the fact that it contains every letter of the english alphabet, and I recall learning the sentence back in elementary school when my teacher began teaching us how to read more complex sentences. This image, brought about through the title of Hughes' poem, immediately caused me to begin reading the poem through the lens of the process of writing and reading.

I imagine this midnight moment's forest:

Something else is alive

Beside the clock's loneliness

And this blank page where my fingers move.

Through the window I see no star:

Something more near

Though deeper within darkness

Is entering the loneliness:

     The line "beside the clock's loneliness" reminds me of the stereotypical life of a writer, where it's implied that a writer's life is a lonely, solitary endeavour. Following that, "Through the window I see no star," leans to the idea that, if we think of a star as a great idea, a writer doesn't always see a great idea on the horizon when they first begin the process of writing. 

Cold, delicately as the dark snow

A fox's nose touches twig, leaf;

Two eyes serve a movement, that now

And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow

Between trees, and warily a lame

Shadow lags by stump and in hollow

Of a body that is bold to come

     From this point on, we have the metaphor of an idea and writing as an animal--of the fox. The second line of the third stanza, "a fox's nose touches twig, leaf" speaks to the idea of touching the initial idea--the experimentation of a writer with this new idea. After this, "sets neat prints into the snow" shows the beginning of the draft, the first "neat prints" on the page. And finally, "of a body that is bold to come" shows that an author eventually lets the ideas come bolding forth, streaming from their fingers or pen like an animal running through the snow.

Across clearings, an eye,

A widening deepening greenness,

Brilliantly, concentratedly,

Coming about its own business

Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox

It enters the dark hole of the head.

The window is starless still; the clock ticks,

The page is printed.

    The first stanza of this last section continues the idea of running with an idea, of how the idea seems to "come about its own business" and bring a whole new life to the idea the writer began with. And finally, the last stanza wraps up the writing process. "It enters the dark hole of the head" shows the idea finally coming to life, continueing seemingly by itself. And, in a great circular motion of life--and also writing--the poem ends the way it started: "The window is starless still; the clock ticks." Like the life of a writer I spoke about above, the writer starts and finishes their process alone, with just a spark of an idea that lites, bellows, and blows out. Like Hughes writes, "the page is printed." 

     I love this idea of "The Thought-Fox" as the process of writing. While it still gives a nod to Hughes' preoccupation with animals and their animalistic qualities, it transfers that animalistic nature to the process of writing. Many people think of the writing process as something that takes a lot of work, that takes a good deal of intense thought and revision. However, I like to believe that in each of us, there is a specific--almost animalistic--process we take toward writing. It's the kind of instinct we have, such as a fox hunting in the woods, that brings us closer and closer to our ideas. And the fact that Hughes can capture the entirety of that idea just in six stanzas on the first page of his book of poems is incredible. 

First Impressions

     First impression-wise, I've enjoyed Plath's writing more than Hughes'. This is probably because I can relate more to the themes Plath writes about, as well as the fact that her writing is very easy to understand and comprehend--her subjects are more upfront, especially in her Juvenilia poetry.
     For instance, one of my favorite poems of hers is entitled "Female Author." This poem speaks to me as a writer, and the undertones of sin and femininity are really interesting.

All day she plays at chess with the bones of the world:

Favored ( while suddenly the rains begin

Beyond the window ) she lies on cushions curled

And nibbles an occasional bonbon of sin.

Prim, pink-breasted, feminine, she nurses

Chocolate fancies in rose-papered rooms

Where polished highboys whisper creaking curses

And hothouse roses shed immoral blooms. 

From the "occasional bonbon of sin" to "immoral blooms," Plath paints a picture of female authors as a certain type of sin. Which definitely makes sense if you think about the time when Plath wrote, and the fact that women were still seen as a sort of property. Not only this, but "she plays at chess with the bones of the world" shows the story of a woman who is left only with the remnants of the world to play with after men have had their turn with it, but she trudges on nonetheless. And finally, "prim, pink-breasted, feminine, she nurses chocolate fancies in rose-papered rooms" shows how things around her are still pushing her to become more feminine, but she struggles against it with her writing anyway. 

     My initial impression of Hughes is of his preoccupation with the imagery of animals, cages, and the sky. The poem that emcompasses this the best is "The Jaguar."

The apes yawn and adore their fleas in the sun.

The parrots shriek as if they were on fire, or strut

Like cheap tarts to attract the stroller with the nut.

Fatigued with indolence, tiger and lion

Lie still as the sun. The boa-constrictor's coil

Is a fossil. Cage after cage seems empty, or

Stinks of sleepers from the breathing straw.

It might be painted on a nursery wall.

     All in all, I enjoy poetry from both Plath and Hughes, but I think Plath's poetry speaks to me more than Hughes. I'm excited for this semester's course and truly do enjoy both individual's work.