Ms Cotter's Class

Poems: 

The Arrival of the Beebox

Mirror

Black Rook in Rainy Weather 

Child 

Morning

Poppies in July 

Themes: 

(ie What does Plath write about?)

• Mental suffering/anguish
• Motherhood/femininity/womanhood 
• Nature 
• Poetic inspiration 

Style: 

(ie How does she write her poetry?)

(Style: language + imagery) 

• Creation of psychic landscapes 
• Imagery that is frequently dark and disturbing 
• Contrasting imagery within her poetry 
• Language that is intense, honest, personal and confessional 
• Use of personification, metaphor and simile 

Black Rook in Rainy Weather 

Plath frequently struggled with bouts of writer’s block and this poem depicts her struggle with artistic insecurity and her fear of ‘total neutrality’- a total lack of poetic inspiration. 

The ‘dull, ruinous’ landscape in this poem reflects the poet’s state of mind; she feels uninspired and blank. The ‘desultory’ weather reflects the randomness and unpredictability of poetic inspiration; it can occur at any time. Poetic inspiration is personified as a kind of divine entity, full of light, that descends from above to ‘set the sight on fire.’ Plath takes comfort in the fact that she can ‘patch together a content of sorts’ even during ‘this season of fatigue.’ The titular black rook, seemingly nondescript and unremarkable, has provided her with inspiration. 

Plath also refers to a second, ‘minor’ type of inspiration. This inspiration can strike suddenly also, and bestow ordinary, mundane household objects with ‘largesse, honor, …love.’ Plath realises that she can seek inspiration even from everyday objects and domestic scenes. 

The poem depicts Plath’s fear and insecurity as a poet. Her clever use of assonance (in this instance, the repetition of broad vowels) slows the pace of the poem and reflects the melancholy and somewhat jaded tone of the poet as she waits helplessly for inspiration to strike her. Towards the end of the poem, her tone has become more patient and accepting as she anticipates ‘that rare, random descent.’ 

Theme: Poetic inspiration/artistic insecurity 

Style Features: Language- use of assonance, alliteration

Imagery- not as evidently dark or disturbing as some of her other poems, but the imagery is designed to be almost bland and plain to reflect the poet’s state of mind- the ‘dull, ruinous landscape’ The imagery is wintry and desolate 

Personification- Inspiration is depicted as a kind of divine entity 

Creation of a psychic landscape- Plath’s uninspired state of mind is reflected in the ‘dull, ruinous landscape’ she describes and in the ‘desultory’ atmosphere she creates. 

Mirror 

In this poem, Plath has ascribed lifelike qualities to an inanimate object; in this instance, to a mirror. The mirror is the speaker of the poem and describes its relationship with a woman who appears preoccupied and critical of her appearance. 

The mirror begins by describing itself as ‘silver and exact.’ The word exact has two meanings: it can mean precise but it can also mean to take or extort. Both meanings make sense in the context of the poem; the mirror does not lie to the woman, rather it reflects an accurate portrayal of her features. It also seems to take her youth from her, day after day. 

In the opening of the poem, the mirror’s tone is quite assured. It is certain of its function and states that it has no ‘preconceptions.’ The mirror is always honest; its reflections are ‘unmisted by love or dislike.’ It does not wish to be perceived as cruel but rather ‘truthful’. In a rather striking metaphor, the mirror compares itself to a ‘little god.’ The mirror realises its own power and importance to the woman. This could be interpreted as a critique on society’s seeming narcissism and obsession with appearance. The mirror spends most of its time looking at the wall opposite it which is ‘pink, with speckles.’ This overtly feminine image reminds us of the female presence in the poem. The mirror has formed an attachment to the wall and we are given the sense that the mirror is rather lonely. 

Its only real companion is the unidentified woman. In the second stanza, the tone of the speaker shifts quite dramatically. Now, the mirror appears insecure and almost needy. In another metaphor, it compares itself to a lake. This is an apt comparison; it gives the mirror a sense of depth. The woman is ‘searching’ the mirror for ‘what she really is’. There is a sense here that the woman is attempting to discover something about herself and that she is quite preoccupied with doing so. The woman is clearly unhappy with what she sees and turns to ‘those liars, the candles or the moon’ to comfort herself, as their light is more flattering to her. The mirror seems resentful of this. It is clear the mirror feels rather rejected by the woman and as she turns her back on it, it reflects it ‘faithfully.’ The mirror clearly feels a sense of loyalty towards the woman, but this is not returned. The woman is troubled by her reflection as the mirror states that it witnesses her ‘tears and an agitation of hands.’ The mirror realises its importance in the woman’s daily life. The woman’s morning routine consists of examining her reflection and this continues their co-dependent relationship. The poem ends on a rather dark and sinister note; the speaker states that the woman has ‘drowned a young girl’ in the mirror and from the mirror ‘an old woman rises’ each day towards her ‘like a terrible fish.’ This oddly disturbing simile serves to remind us of the inevitability of aging. 

The poem can be understood as a critique of society’s preoccupation with appearance and the unjust pressures women face to look attractive and youthful. 

Themes: Femininity/insecurity/mental anguish

Style Features: 

• Use of metaphor and simile 
• Personification
• Two nine-line stanzas that ‘mirror’ each other 
• Tone change 

The Arrival of the Bee Box 

This poem can be read in a literal and metaphorical sense. Plath writes about her hesitance at opening a box of bees that she has ordered. The box serves as a metaphor for Plath’s disturbed and anguished mind. The poem can be seen as a description of the process of dealing with and confronting unpleasant and potentially destructive thoughts. 

The speaker opens the poem by stating that she ordered a ‘clean wood box.’ We are immediately provided with the first of several bizarre metaphors which occur throughout the poem. Plath compares the box to ‘the coffin of a midget or a square baby.’ We are informed that the box is ‘locked’ and ‘dangerous’. In the second stanza, the speaker demonstrates the complex relationship that she has formed with the box; she is simultaneously repulsed by and attracted to it. She acknowledges the threat it poses to her but she also states that she can’t ‘keep away from it.’ The box is windowless, meaning that she can’t properly see its contents. This is also true of the human mind; our thoughts are intangible and often difficult to identify. 

She describes the inside as ‘dark’ and in another bizarre and disturbing metaphor as having the ‘feeling of African hands/minute and shrunk for export.’ The dark imagery continues as she describes the bees as ‘black on black, angrily clambering.’ The cacophonous sounds in this stanza aptly characterise the inhabitants of the box as they aggressively move around inside. 

The speaker realises the potential danger these bees pose. She wonders how she can possibly release them when they have the potential to harm her. She is most intimidated and appalled by the noise they make which she describes as ‘unintelligible syllables.’ She likens the bees to a ‘Roman mob’. The bees are not a threat individually but they are dangerous ‘together.’ She continues this metaphor into the next stanza, where she listens to their ‘furious Latin.’ She acknowledges that she is not ‘a Caesar.’ She feels rather powerless and weak in comparison to the bees and feels incapable of controlling them. In a rather humorously hyperbolic statement, she claims that she has ordered a ‘box of maniacs.’ Her conflicting thoughts are evident in this stanza, as her tone changes from one of doubt and fear to one of assertiveness. She confidently states that she can send the bees back. She gains a sense of assurance and dominance and states ‘they can die, I need feed them nothing. I am the owner.’ 

Her uncertainty returns in the succeeding stanza, however, as she wonders how hungry the bees are. Plath provides us with uncharacteristically pretty and attractive imagery as she imagines what would happen if she turned into a tree: ‘there is the laburnum, its blond colonnades, and the petticoats of cherry.’ 

In the final stanza, her tone becomes more rational and calm. She acknowledges that the bees might simply ignore her in her ‘moon suit and funeral veil.’ This bizarre description of a beekeeper’s outfit is typical of Bishop and it is at once oddly disturbing and rather witty. The euphonious quality of these lines is comforting and fits the now less frightened and insecure tone of the poem. She realises that the bees have no real reason to turn on her as she is ‘no source of honey.’ She vows that tomorrow she will be ‘sweet God’ and will ‘set them free.’ Although previously stating that she is no ‘Caesar’, she now feels confident enough to refer to herself as their god. She realises that she alone has the power to set them free.

She closes the poem with the uplifting statement ‘the box is only temporary’.

This statement offers the reader comfort and assurance; all negative and

destructive thoughts can be set free.  

 Themes: Mental suffering/fear/insecurity

Style: 

Bizarre imagery and use of metaphor/simile 

Shift in tone from frightened and insecure to more assured and comforted 

Use of cacophony and euphony 

Child 

Plath wrote this poem about her son, Nicholas, born in January 1962. In the poem, Bishop describes her desire to fill her child’s world with rather whimsical images; ‘color and ducks’ and ‘the zoo of the new.’ She views his eye as ‘the one absolutely beautiful thing’ and wants the images he views to be ‘grand and classical.’ Plath views her child as pure and untainted (an ‘April snowdrop’ and a ‘little stalk without wrinkle’) and she wishes for him to remain this way. She is aware, however of her own influence on her son and its potential to negatively affect him. It can be said that Plath is likening herself to the ‘Indian pipe’ in the poem- a rather unattractive plant that lives in darkness and feeds on decaying matter. Her ‘troublous wringing of hands’ and clearly agitated state is an image that she realises her son should not be witnessing. Plath is insecure and feels inadequate in her role as a mother, which is a recurring theme in her poetry (it is also explored in ‘Morning Song’). 

She also appears to be lamenting the harsh realities of the world her son has been born into; she refers to it ‘a dark ceiling without a star.’ 

Themes: mental anguish/motherhood/feelings of insecurity/inadequacy/failure  

Style features: Use of metaphor to describe her child ‘little stalk without wrinkle’ and his eye is compared to a ‘pool’ 

The world is compared to a ‘dark ceiling without a star’. Her use of disturbing metaphors is a feature of her poetry 

There is a shift in tone in the poem. The beginning of the poem is rather hopeful and loving; the poem ends, however, on a tone full of despair and dejection. 

The imagery towards the end of the poem is dark and disturbing in fitting with the imagery the child is witnessing. 

Morning Song 

This poem was written after the birth of Plath’s daughter, Frieda, in 1960. The poem describes Plath’s feelings of apprehension and insecurity as a mother, as well as the expectancy and responsibility she faces in this maternal role. As is typical of Plath, the poem is incredibly honest and personal. The beginning of the poem conveys to us a mother who is apprehensive and uncomfortable in her new role. The language and imagery used is rather clinical and cold. As Plath settles into her new role, however, the language and imagery becomes warmer and more natural. 

The poem opens with the statement ‘love set you going like a fat gold watch.’ The parents’ lovemaking has brought the child into the world, who has been likened to a ‘gold watch.’ Although this is a rather clinical and mechanical description of the child, it also demonstrates to us that the parents value the child. The child is unceremoniously welcomed into the world; her ‘footsoles’ are ‘slapped’. This is the catalyst that prompts the child to cry and this sound takes its place ‘among the elements.’ There is a sense here that the child’s cry has become an intrinsic part of the world it has been born into; it is now as natural as the elements. The parents are fully aware of the significance of their arrival; their ‘voices echo’ as they celebrate the child’s arrival. There is also the sense, however, that they feel rather unsure of what to do. The baby is compared to a ‘new statue’ ‘in a drafty museum’. They are clearly in awe of her, much like a spectator in a museum might appreciate a work of art. This is quite a detached and clinical image, however. The parents merely observe the baby. They feel almost intimidated by the baby’s ‘nakedness’. They realise its vulnerability and their responsibility to protect it. However, they appear ill-prepared and unsure of themselves; they ‘stand round blankly as walls.’ 

Plath then uses a rather shocking simile to convey her feelings of inadequacy as a mother. She states that she is no more the baby’s mother ‘than the cloud that distils a mirror to reflect its own slow effacement at the wind’s hand.’ Here, Plath is likening herself to a cloud that is gradually destroyed by the wind and leaves behind a puddle that mirrors it. Her baby is likened to the puddle, who has grown from its creator who will continue to grow, as Plath herself gradually ages and fades away. 

Following this, however, the tone of the poem becomes warmer and more intimate. Plath describes her routine of getting up to feed her child at night. The baby’s ‘moth-breath flickers’ as she sleeps. This image reinforces the baby’s delicateness and fragility. She is asleep in a room with ‘flat pink roses’ on the walls. This presents an overtly feminine and cosy image to us. The speaker wakes up to listen to her child attentively. She likens the child’s breathing to a ‘far sea.’ When the child cries, Plath immediately rises to tend to her. She is clearly tired and drowsy. The next image she provides us with paints a rather unflattering and unattractive picture of the poet, although it is also somewhat humorous and charming; she is ‘cow-heavy and floral’ in her ‘Victorian nightgown.’ We are suddenly reminded of Plath’s unavoidable maternal responsibilities and the toll these have taken on her body. Her nightgown is old-fashioned, yet practical. The inclusion of the word ‘Victorian’ reminds us of a repressed, antiquated (old-fashioned) and patriarchal society. 

The child is expecting the mother and opens its mouth ‘clean as a cat’s.’ This is an intimate moment between mother and baby, as the sun rises outside. When the baby is finished feeding, it begins to coo and gurgle contentedly. The poem ends on a rather uplifting note, as Plath describes the baby’s ‘clear vowels’ rising ‘like balloons.’ It is worth noting also that Plath is now holding her baby, rather than merely observing it. 

Themes: Motherhood/femininity/inadequacy and insecurity 

Style: Use of simile, metaphor

Extremely honest/confessional language 

Imagery and language which transforms from cold, clinical and rather detached to warm and intimate (contrasting imagery is a feature of Plath’s work) 

Poppies in July 

This poem was written in July 1962. By this stage, Plath’s marriage to Ted Hughes was in difficulty, and Plath was suffering from a severe bout of depression. It is a typical Plath poem, in that it reveals more about the poet herself than about the subject to which the poet addresses herself. In this respect, it is another psychic landscape (mindscape). We are given an insight into the inner turmoil that plagued her. The imagery is particularly noteworthy: it is very dark, graphic and disturbing, reflecting her mindset at the time of the poem’s writing. It complements The Arrival of the Bee Box.

Little poppies, little hell flames, 
Do you do no harm? 

You flicker. I cannot touch you. 
I put my hands among the flames. Nothing burns 

And it exhausts me to watch you 
Flickering like that, wrinkly and clear red, like the skin of a mouth. 

A mouth just bloodied. 
Little bloody skirts! 

There are fumes I cannot touch. 
Where are your opiates, your nauseous capsules? 

If I could bleed, or sleep! – 
If my mouth could marry a hurt like that! 

Or your liquors seep to me, in this glass capsule, 
Dulling and stilling. 

But colorless. Colorless.

Plath starts the poem with a seemingly positive, harmless description of the poppies, which suggests to us that this is also a positive, harmless poem. However, the poppies’ description changes and we see that the bright red colour of the poppies reminds the poet of the burning fires of hell, no doubt a less than positive idea for anyone that believes in them. 

The poet then asks a rhetorical question, inquiring as to whether or not these poppies can hurt her. This could be a reference to a contemplation of drugs, an idea explored later in the poem.

As in the first stanza, Plath begins by describing the outward appearance of the poppies. Continuing the fire metaphor, the poppies swaying in the breeze remind the poet of flames flickering, and the poet is somehow frustrated by the fact that she is unable to touch these flowers. 

The poet begins to show a desire to self-harm, thrusting her hand among the “flames” to see if it burns. This is the poem’s first real insight into the pain Plath is feeling. Self-harm is, somehow, an unaddressed problem in society these days as many people have been desensitized towards it. But to get to the point that you feel the need to hurt yourself physically to keep you sane, to keep you linked in some way to the real world, is a terrible thing. The idea of the poet’s urge, or need, to injure herself is carried on throughout the poem. 

This experience – the poet’s depression and her inability to make that desperate link with real life – is mentally draining for Plath. Again, she describes the outward appearance of the flowers, this time with a simile. They are compared to the wrinkled, red skin of a mouth.

The simile in the previous stanza is clarified: the poppies do not simply remind her of a mouth, but of a bloodied mouth. This violent imagery may be another hint towards her desire to self harm: she would like to feel the pain of being punched in the mouth, because it is better than feeling nothing at all.

Plath uses yet another comparison – a metaphor this time – to describe the flowers. They are described as little bloody skirts. Not only does this reflect the blood and pain of previous references to self harm, but it could also refer to some form of sexual violence; yet another unpleasant image. 

Plath’s focus changes from self-harm tendencies to the poppies’ narcotic properties. Continuing the idea that there is something about these flowers she cannot touch, she now states that she is unable to touch their fumes (something that nobody can actually touch). 

There is a sense of helplessness as the poet asks the flowers where their narcotics are. It seems as though she is contemplating drugs as a relief from her passive, stagnant life. 

Plath seems to be trying to decide between self-harm and drug abuse as her release, describing the harm (seemingly cutting) as “bleed” and the drugs as “sleep”. The poet wants complete oblivion, rather than the detached state she has already found herself in, and rather than full entrance to the harsh realities of life in the “real world”. 

Complex imagery is used, referring to her mouth. It is unclear whether Plath is contemplating drug use via ingestion, making a reference to the disturbing image of bloodied mouths displayed earlier in the poem, or both. The use of punctuation (specifically, exclamation marks) highlights just how desperate the poet is getting. She needs these drugs and pain, and she needs them now.

Plath continues to desire drugs, talking about taking them in liquid form. We are unsure if she is talking about taking the drugs in a glass or injecting them with a syringe, or once again describing her detachment from the rest of the world, feeling as though she is enclosed in a glass bubble. 

Either way, Plath would welcome the total obliteration of emotions associated with opiates as her life would then, at last, have one constant, definite factor: the dulling, numbing effect of the drugs.

Plath goes from talking about red poppies to something colourless. It is unclear what this short, one-line stanza means – she could be talking about the colourless opiate from poppies, or about how her life is colourless. One point is certain though: the final stanza, like all of the previous stanzas in the poem, rings with a note of desperation. There is no glimmer of hope.