The Art Of Dying In Plath's Poetry
Sylvia Plath was preoccupied with death throughout her entire life and this pretty much affected her work. Death seems to be extremely intimate in her poems. Her poetry collection Ariel consists of taboo topics like death and suicide. Her obsession with death can be seen in her poetry. She represents death as purity and an escape from the sufferings of life. Plath also portrayed ‘dying’ from a feminist point of view. It is evident in her poems like Lady Lazarus and Daddy. In her collection Ariel, Plath made proper use of poetic devices to artfully convey her feelings about ‘death’. In the poem Lady Lazarus, she doesn’t hesitate to speak about ‘the art of dying’. She writes: “Dying / Is an art, like everything else. / I do it exceptionally well.” She proudly states that dying is something she has encountered several times and that she excels in it. She even starts the poem with reference to her suicide attempts. The lines “I have done it again. / One year in every ten / I manage it” make it apparent. She then ends the poem with the lines “Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air.” referring herself to as Phoenix, a bird in the Greek Mythology that gets regenerated or is reborn. Through this Plath portrayed the idea of the rebirth of the soul. In the poem Edge, Plath refers to ‘death’ as an accomplishment. It is seen as something satisfying. She starts with the lines “The woman is perfected. / Her dead / Body wears the smile of accomplishment’. This poem was written a few days before Plath committed suicide, and similarly, the poem also seems to romanticize about being dead. In the poem Ariel, which also happens to be the title of the book, the theme of death is represented metaphorically. It is the death of the speaker’s former self. Now she has transformed into a powerful woman. In the poem The Birthday Present, the reference to death wish is very clear. The veil the speaker talks about in the first line is the veil of death. She writes: “After all I am alive only by accident. / I would have killed myself gladly that time any possible way. / Now there are these veils, shimmering like curtains,”. She is dissatisfied with her life and is ready to accept death.
The main concern in the poem Tulips is the speaker’s desire to be left alone in the quiet and pureness of death. Plath was emotionally torn during this part of her life and wanted to disassociate from the outside world. Plath has used imagery and symbolism to depict her resignation to death. Plath applies the colour white as a symbol of peace and death. The colour white is suggested for several things in the poem. She writes “Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in. / I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly / as the light lies on these white wall, this bed, these hands.”. This tells that the speaker finds peace in death and that she has accepted it. Many Ariel poems also convey the message that the body dies but the rebirth of the soul takes place. In the poem Cut, she is seen to be as a masochist, i.e, someone who enjoys an activity that causes pain. The first two lines “What a thrill - / My thumb instead of an onion” says it all. Plath explicitly puts forward her thoughts regarding death and this has caught much critical attention. She also repeatedly uses the pronoun ‘I’, making the poetry feel more personal. However, her poetry speaks much more than just her struggles. On a BBC interview with Peter Orr, Plath said that her poems come out of her emotional experiences, but then she remarked that personal experience is important but it should not act like a shut-box.
To sum up, it is evident that Plath’s Ariel poems highlight the subject ‘The Art of Dying’. Plath skillfully applied poetic devices like metaphor to shed light on this subject in poetry. Her poems portray the sense that escaping the body can lead to something glorious and that death is the ultimate end to a new beginning.
Conclusion
Through the analysis of Sylvia Plath’s Ariel poems, it is understood that ‘death’ plays a significant role in Plath’s poetry. It is a mystery that attracts several poets. Ariel, the collection of poems tackles sensitive issues. It explores the theme of death from vast ideas. Many of the poems in this collection talks about the separation of the soul and the body. The negative side of her life influenced her writings. Plath’s life and her obsession with death are well documented in Ariel. She is often known as a confessional poet for indulging her personal life and troubled state of mind into her literary works. She also faced some criticism for this as some believe that a good poet is one who can separate one’s individuality from his poetry. To understand Plath’s poetry, a background study is a must. Ariel, the title of the poem itself is confusing. It was later that Plath’s husband Ted Hughes explained it was the name of her horse. Through the poems in the Ariel collection, Plath also spoke out against the patriarchy system. She even explicitly wrote about her husband’s dominance over her. This was excluded from the collection published by Hughes. Therefore, he was accused of editing the actual manuscript which Plath left unpublished. Plath metaphorically or literally talks about ‘death’ and other dark, haunting subjects in her poetry. Plath also tried to explore a women’s need for self-actualization. All things considered, it is learned that Plath has a beautiful way of representing even the darkest of the themes.
