Eigentlich Nicht: Second Thoughts

Here are some things I learned in class discussion.

Sylvia Plath - The Colossus

I should've just skipped the title. I was closer the first time.

Anyway, the consensus reached seemed to be that the poem was probably written about Plath's frustrations as a female writer and with her husband Ted Hughes, whom she viewed as sort of a father figure with whom she had an unhappy marriage. Hughes was the British poet laureate, and the theme of Greek antiquity throughout the poem seems to have been utilized to indicate Plath's feeling that there was no way for her to escape male dominance in the poetry hierarchy.

The poem is an allegory. The "mule-bray, pig-grunt and bawdy cackles" probably point toward Hughes' poetry, which often dealt with animal sounds. She writes to convey her years of laboring to make herself known. She cleans the ruins of The Colossus of Rhodes to see if it has anything to say, but she is only an ant, and her efforts are fruitless.

The enjambment, which emerges only in the latter stanzas of the poem, imitates the unending debris of this monument.

Though we discussed that the "red stars and those of plumb-color" act as a symbol often ignored by analysts of the work, we spoke about the association of the colors with pain, and I proposed that stars turn red as they die. Also, I am realizing as I type this, she says she is "counting" them, which makes a lot of sense with the theme of fruitless labor.

No one can count the stars.

Robert Lowell - Epilogue

I was more on track with this one, though I missed some things. I think I was projecting a little bit.

The poem was less about seeking inspiration and fearing being too realistic and more about the constraints of writing in general. He perceives poetry to be an art dealing with recollection, which consequently relies on fact and is paralyzed by this. He expresses a certain self-consciousness about the shortcomings of his writings, but then he goes on with this:

"Pray for the grace of accuracy

Vermeer gave to the sun's illumination

stealing like the tide across a map

to his girl solid with yearning."

assonance

alliteration/consonance

more assonance

What he wants is to bring his poetry to life--to give it a certain timelessness--and he envies Vermeer's ability to do so.