Comparisons in Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson Poems

Poems are ways to express an individual’s feelings and aspects arousing different sentiments and perspectives of the reader. The analyzed poems were written between 19th and 20th century. Sylvia Plath’s ‘Daddy’ was written in 1962, when women were not treated equally to men whereas Dickinson’s “I Felt a Funeral in my Brain’ was written around 1861. The metaphorical title expresses her emotions of loneliness. 

Bruce Dawe has made a very powerful point in his poem’s ironical title ‘Homecoming’ written in 1968 during the Vietnam war. ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ written in 1951 by Dylan Thomas where he addresses his dying father relieving it in the last stanza. The title of Gwen Harwood’s poem ‘In the Park’ written around 1944 literary shows her presence in the park exploring her contrite feeling in life, similar to ‘When you are old’ written by WB Yeats in 1891 where he regrets about his uncertain relationship. 

I Felt a Funeral in my Brain & Daddy 

Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson in their respective poems delve into their notions of hatred and resentment in ‘Daddy’ and impassioning worthlessness due to solitary in ‘I felt a funeral in my brain’. Both poets who had walked down a dark road of despondency express the loss and wretchedness they endure. 

The imagery of 'funeral in my brain’, a metaphor in the first stanza conveys her thoughts of segregations in her, loneliness and deep depression which turns her into a virtual recluse. 'Mourners running in a funeral' express the bedlam and bewilderedness running in her mind like mourners trudging “to and fro” in a funeral. Now she is so overwhelmed after the sore experiences that she has lost control of things and her mind is deeply distressed. Dickinson Relates the memorial as an intellectual lucidity, diving into a strange irrational state later in the poem. Dickinson goes from using the word “brain” to “mind” through the poem which indicates that the “funeral” more agonized, affecting her mind. 

Sylvia Plath in ‘Daddy’ discourses the misfortune reminiscences of her past with her father and her husband, throughout her journey of suffering. Plath expresses her sights of childhood tragedy (with her father) and adulthood (with her husband) sparkling up through metaphors and allegory. “It stuck in a barb wire snare”. Plath represents her powerful imagery of unhealthy and complex relationship with her father in the sixth stanza, “It stuck in a barb wire snare”, ‘barb wire’ representing her segregations. She sees wickedness in her father and the same wickedness in her husband after she gets married, the reason being the unpleasant experiences she had to go through. At the beginning of the poem, Plath casts her mind back to her childhood, living subserviently to her father, relentlessly dreaded and is no longer a sufferer of her father’s viciousness and mental atrocities. Despite Plath finds it difficult to forget her dead father’s and husband’s memories, she finally eludes from that sentimental state, overemphasizing the cruelty of men in a male dominating society and defying their conventions. 

Through analyzing the series of poems, poets in their respective poems explore their ideas and perspectives stretching out the imagination of the reader. Dickinson expresses her isolation through images of a funeral. On the other hand, Plath throughout her poem she conspicuously describes the cruelty of men towards women, dominating female society.