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Reading Sylvia Plath as an Adult
She represents the darkest icon of my self,
The feminine side turned outward and blackened.
For what is art without control? A girlish voice
In darkling woods. The muse is turned to hate
supreme,
American girl hardened to stone, blonde Medusa
Looking at herself. A sea-god perched on her left eye.
If amber heard was literate it would be just as dangerous.
But amber doesn’t hear itself, and so turns hate outwards,
On depths always unknown by it. How can you see
Blonde rage and flee, unbroken by its magnitude?
Plath brooks no resurrections of a sun, and in life’s May
Have found another register. She never was a universe,
But, of course, she didn’t need to be. The dark icon remains,
As blonde and brash as ex-girlfriends, and twice as brilliant.
The feminine side turned outward and blackened.
For what is art without control? A girlish voice
In darkling woods. The muse is turned to hate
supreme,
American girl hardened to stone, blonde Medusa
Looking at herself. A sea-god perched on her left eye.
If amber heard was literate it would be just as dangerous.
But amber doesn’t hear itself, and so turns hate outwards,
On depths always unknown by it. How can you see
Blonde rage and flee, unbroken by its magnitude?
Plath brooks no resurrections of a sun, and in life’s May
Have found another register. She never was a universe,
But, of course, she didn’t need to be. The dark icon remains,
As blonde and brash as ex-girlfriends, and twice as brilliant.
Published 14th Jun 2022
Author's Note
Inspired by a YouTube comment which described Sylvia Plath’s collected poems as “The Handbook for Crazy Ex-Girlfriends”.
References to Plath’s poetry are dotted about, but the closest thing to a direct quotation is “resurrections of a sun”, which is a reference to “flies watch no resurrection in the sun” from November Graveyard, which may be my favourite poem by Plath.
References to Plath’s poetry are dotted about, but the closest thing to a direct quotation is “resurrections of a sun”, which is a reference to “flies watch no resurrection in the sun” from November Graveyard, which may be my favourite poem by Plath.
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15th Jun 2022 00:25am
I’ve never read Plath. but I’ve read stuff about her. wasn’t Ted Hughes the problem? I dunno ..
15th Jun 2022 9:33am
She suffered from clinical depression or some kind of major depressive disorder long before she met Ted Hughes, but marrying into a cold English family apparently didn’t help.
Anonymous
15th Jun 2022 12:15pm
There was a barbed poem 'J'accuse Ted Hughes'. Too much vodka has passed for me to remember the writer. Someone told Plath to stop writing for an imaginary audience and just for herself. Sound advice.
Enjoyed this poem Jack.
Enjoyed this poem Jack.
15th Jun 2022 2:46pm
I think I remember that poem. It was awful, as I recall. “I accuse / Ted Hughes”. The so-bad-it’s-good, unintentional comedy of poetry. There was a lot of intersectional dreck like that written about Plath and Hughes’ marriage, as if they were the Kardashians, which I suppose in the literary world of that time they were.
