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! :)