Oh, Sylvia

Words - Sylvia Plath

I feel as though this poem is another lamenting her lack of recognition as a poet. Otherwise, I don't know what the title could mean. I believe the image she depicts of the tree being chopped is a metaphor for her work's being "cut down."

The echoes of which she speaks sound, I believe, like horses as they run away. The echoes return in the penultimate stanza as dry words and riderless horses.

The water striving to re-establish its mirror could be interpreted as a symbolic representation of Plath's striving to establish herself as a poet. The rock the drops and turns may be one in the same with the white skull eaten by weedy greens. This imagery sets a desolate picture to reinforce the hopelessness of the tone.

"From the bottom of the pool, fixed stars/ Govern a life." That sounds like another metaphor. Her hopes are drowning under the weight of her predetermined destiny to remain unknown.

Further accusations of author conceit ....

6. How do the various physical effects--theatrical components such as sets, lights, costuming, makeup, gestures, stage movements, musical effects of song or dance, and so forth-- reinforce the meanings and contribute to the emotional effects? By what means does the playwright indicate the nature of these physical effects--explicitly, through stage directions and set descriptions, or implicitly, through dialogue between characters?

Lights were important to the play in moments like the nonrealistic one in which, during Tom's spiel about how tricky people like his dad can escape coffins without removing nails, the portrait of his father lit up to unveil the veiled reference (1249). Also, the music, also nonrealistic, offered insights into the nature of the particular moment in the memory. Actually, the fact that it's a memory makes the nonrealistic elements sort of de facto realistic--who's to say I don't remember things as though they were musicals? Also, Williams' detailed stage directions sort of give away all of his symbolism. As an aspiring writer, I really have to admit feeling annoyed about this. If the reader won't pick up on the symbolism unless you shove it in his/her face, there's not much point in putting it in there to begin with. If it's so subtle very few will notice, then leave it to the few to feel smug and point it out to their friends. That's what Lit classes are for. Also, maybe I would have picked up on the parallels on my own. Now my brain has gone all lazy. Hmph.

Maybe not half. Maybe... asymmetrical fractions.

My face when I realized that, indeed, the baby was going to get torn in half.

Aaaand I decided because of foreshadowing! "Then she noticed the baby's picture on the bed and picked it up." "He held onto the baby and pushed [pulled?] with all his weight."

I have decided that there are some metaphors in the story too. "But it was getting darker on this inside too," for instance, is a metaphor. It's not really getting darker inside because daylight doesn't have much of an effect on indoor lighting, usually. The real meaning is that the atmosphere is darkening. Also, since the story itself is actually about divorce, the baby getting torn apart (=[=[=[=[=[=[=[!!!!!!=[) symbolizes the way that divorce can, sometimes, tear a family apart.

The author's distinct lack of quotation marks lends to the tug of war feeling of the story. She tugs and shouts, and he tugs and shouts....

Aaaalso, the title "Popular Mechanics" is probably a reference to the mainstream/status quo and divorce. At first, I thought it had something to do with the mechanics of babies and how they are structured, because to be honest, when I read something, and the baby dies at the end, it becomes a story about a baby dying, no matter WHAT anybody else says. Nyeugh.

The ocean is on fire. The sky turned dark again as the boats came in.

The denotative situation of "Crossing the Bar" (Q1) is as follows:

In stanza one, the speaker mentions the sunset and an evening star, which both emerge at the end of a day. I believe this is symbolic of the end of his life. He also hopes to avoid a "moaning of the bar" when he "put[s] out to sea." I think that means he hopes to die a peaceful and brisk death, when the time comes. The "one clear call" for the speaker is perhaps a call to death, or the arrival of "his time."

The second stanza has a similar tone of imminent demise. "But such a tide as moving seems asleep,/ Too full for sound and foam," sounds to me like the notion that the speaker's life is too full. He has used up his life's potential, and he is headed toward the Great Sleep. (heythat'saeuphemism!)

"Twilight and evening bell" in the third stanza have a similar meaning to the "Sunset and evening star" in the first. It means that the onset of death is upon the speaker, and "After that the dark!" which is, again, death. "And may there be no sadness of farewell/ When I embark;" reminded me a lot of the poem "Valediction." They both forbid the audience to feel sad when they "leave," although for entirely different reasons. Personally, that would make me even more panicky-sad, but whatever.

Stanza four is "For though from out our bourne of Time and Place/ The flood may bear me far,/ I hope to see my Pilot face to face/ When I have crossed the bar." I believe this means that the flood, which symbolizes the rushing changes and differences that occur in death, take him far from his earthly "Time and Place," he hopes to see his Pilot, symbolic of God, "face to face." Also, the "bar" he crosses appears to be death, but in the context of the poem, our group decided it was a sandbar, which follows along with the imagery of the sea and foam and sunset mentioned earlier in the poem.

This song is creepy the first twelve or so times you hear it, but it grows on you. On the plus side, there are no dead people in this particular video.

Some people call that a prayer.

^^Heart-battering? Anyone?

It's a poem of direct address to God!

The primary focus seems to be on paradoxical statements. For instance, the speaker says he'll never be free until God imprisons him. Also, he says he won't be chaste until he's ravished.

Aaaaand there was quite a bit of symbolism. God the Father is the one who knocks and breaks; think flood-the-land, build-an-arc God. The Holy Spirit is the one that breathes and blows because the Holy Spirit is often described like a wind.... Also, God the Son is the shining and burning one because it's a PUN! =D He's the Light of the World and the Son/Sun of God. (That's actually where the date for Christmas originated, indirectly, I believe. The pagans had a feast day for the sun god, and Christians wanted to party too, so they made Christmas to celebrate at the same time for their Son of God. I may have that slightly wrong, as I am remembering it from middle school religion class.)

*FUN Fact* The name N'SYNC comes from one of the members' mother saying the group sounded "in sync." It also includes the last letter of each of the members' first names: JustiN, ChriS, JoeY, Lan(steN), and JC. Yeah, they gave Lance a nickname so it would fit.

But sir, nobody worries about upsetting a droid.

APO 96225

Don't act like that's not the first image that came to mind.

Okay, so my group saw a lot of similarities between this poem and The Things They Carried. It reminded me particularly of Norman Bowker, which is disturbing because of how he ended up. Both stories, though, explain how in the case of Vietnam, people always wanted to know what was going on until they did, and then they wanted to erase it from memory and flee any more discussion on the topic because they just can't handle the truth.

It's the old "story-truth v. happening-truth" coming back to visit again. I think Margaret pointed out that the "It sure rains a lot here" could be symbolic of the raining down of ash from the napalm and whatnot. (#doesn'tknowwhatnapalmisreally) And then the sunrise could be explosions and the funny monkeys... were symbolic of something else... possibly Vietnamese citizens, but that seems messed up.

The speaker utilizes understatement in his letters until he finally gets worn down and tells his mom the truth. Then, in what I believe is situational irony, the dad tells him he's upsetting his mother and to try to be less ominous.