Plath Work, Web Work (Updates)
Hello! It’s been an exciting January as I have found my momentum for so many things again. I think the cold weather keeps me in at the computer and has energized me as of late. I’ve had a busy week or so expanding this website to include my poetic interpretations of Sylvia Plath’s early poems […]
“Spider”: Caught in Willie’s Winning Web
Ted Hughes positioned “Spider” as a 1956 poem, but the evidence suggests it may have been written in 1958. In the poem, Plath references the African folklore tale of Anansi, the trickster spider. Hughes noted in The Collected Poems that by the end of the year 1956 she had become greatly interested in African folklore, […]
“Strumpet Song”: …And God Created Female Competition
Plath wrote in her journals that “Strumpet Song” was written shortly after meeting Hughes (UJ, 410). It is a literary treatment of time in the metaphor of a whore (CP, 33). Plath’s first encounter with Hughes, when he kissed her “bang smash on the mouth” at a party and she bit his cheek (UJ, 212), […]
“Letter to a Purist”: Shaking Up Virginal Vernacular
Plath’s “Letter to a Purist” has been dated November 19, 1956 by scholar Nancy D. Hargrove. In the poem, Plath references the giant statue, Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world (CP, 36). The “Cloud-cuckoo” is a reference to Aristophanes, and this phrase is also seen in her 1958 poem, […]
“Vanity Fair”: Waging War Against the Idiot Box
“Vanity Fair” appears to have been written on October 28, 1956, judging from Plath’s pocket diary. “Vanity Fair” is Plath’s poke at the television sitcoms and soap operas such as The Grove Family in the UK, and As the World Turns in the United States, which were both becoming popular at the time. In 1956, […]