Discussion Anyone read Sylvia Plath's poetry?

[top_cat]

I'm doing it for my exams but It deals with suicide and depression. I find poetry extremely boring but I can get with it when it comes to her work. It seems interesting but very challenging

 

[whatever1111]

yeah, although I'm not a fan. Have you tried Larkin? he's a miserable fuck, also, but funny and more traditional, yeatsian in form.

 

[martha]

I became a fan of Sylvia Plath since the moment, when I first read the Bell Jar.
She was suffering from sincere bipolar depression and psych warded after her first suicide attempt.
In my opinion, she was a great writer but dedicated her life to Ted Hughes, her husband, who eventually was a good poet, but betrayed her badly.
Apparently and tragically Ted Hughes second wife suicided the same way as Sylvia, also taking their child with her.

In my eyes Sylvia not just suffered from her mental illness, but from the way society in those days pulled women into a certain role model of being good housewives and mothers prior to being successful or creative.
For me she represents the enormous creativity that many bipolars express and also the tragic of breaking down and unbearable suffering.

I think I kind of feel very solidaric, she strikes a certain chord in me, as I like broken characters.

P.S. Concerning her poetry and life story I can absolutely recommend Her Husband: Ted Hughes & Sylvia Plath, a Marriage by Diane Middlebrook, which became the gold standard of many books published about the couple and also a Los Angeles Time -Bestseller.
There I learnt al lot about the ways and meanings of her poetry which in my eyes can only be seen corresponding to Hughes` metaphoric, surreal and highly naturalistic style.

P.P.S. I did not mean to sound boring and hope you can profit of any of my suggestions.

 

[whatever1111]

Voices and Visions Spotlight: SYLVIA PLATH