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i was wondering why this poem was deticated to Susan O'neill Roe?

This Poem is my english exam i have to pre-analise it so some1 please tell me why is was deticated to Susan O'neill Roe

For Kevin: Susan O'Neal Roe was the babysitter who came and took care of Sylvia Plath's children while she wrote, during the last few months of her life. I don't know why "Cut" is dedicated to her, but I would speculate that it was in fact Susan that cut her thumb, inspiring Sylvia to write the poem.

Anyway, I absolutely love the energy and audacity of this poem and its parade of powerful images, which create an exhilarating momentum by the time it is all closed with the terse epithet, "Thumb stump." They may seem random, but after a while I realized that these images seem in a way chronological, taking the reader on a sort of iconographic tour of American history, FROM "Little Pilgrim," to "Babushka." Look yourself and see what you think.

And FYI, "trepanned vetern" refers to an emergency medical procedure in which one cuts a round hole in the head of a person who has had an impact to the head in ORDER to relieve swelling pressure on the brain. Like many others, this image shrewdly echoes the idea of the bleednig thumb with its top cut off.

A critic in the Cristian Science Monitor writing about "The Bell Jar" said that Sylvia Plath's poetry captures brilliantly "the moment poised on the edge of chaos." This poem, which presents a mad stream of wildly vivid comments, questions and name-calling, all in response to nothing more than accidentally cutting your thumb, is to me a wonderful prime example of that power.

I was always darkly awed by sylvia plaths anarchic writings - her wholly innovative juxtapositions and unsettling evocations send these discordant oscillations wreaking havoc with my staid presbyterian piety

well i also have to analyse this poem for an english assessment, so i'll try to contribute to your understanding of the poem.

firstly, if we are to understand this poem, we must understand the context in which it was written. Plath wrote this poem only one year before her death, her marriage had just broken up and she was alone with a tiny child to raise.

the poem can be interpreted in a number of different ways. the cut she so endearingly writes about could either be an accident, in which case she merely explores the mundane and everyday; or it could be deliberate, and her writing as well as her biography could lead us to this conclusion.

this poem, like many of plath's others is layered and can be interpreted in many a different way. even this analogy has depth to it - the poem is layered like the layers of an onion, and this represents the layers of skin in "Cut".

the first line of the poem is "What a thrill". if this cut is deliberate, then the line conveys plaths feelings of pleasure and excitement at the time...

if you would like me to post more on the poem then please don't hesitate to post a message - i'll get back to you as soon as i can.

stan whyte, congratulations, you own a dictionary. why don't get off that high farting horse of yours and speak common english? not that we don't get you, it's that your pretense at eloquence strikes one as quite contrived.
sylvia plath is a goddess.

This poem is, as with all her work, many layered and complex. I get the feeling that she is deeply disturbed (yes, I know we know that, but still). The image of manic laughter this conjured up in my head, laughter verging on insanity, supports the theory that this cut was deliberate. Self-hurt often offers thrill and sometimes almost escapism ('I let that pain flutter to the wind/Replace it by wallowing in this bloodbath', to quote C. Chandler), and that is reflected expertly here.

The other thing that struck me about this is how all of this arises from one cut - to me this suggests an obsessive personality.

This is excellant, provoking in me so much thought. Worderfully mind bending.

susan was a babysitter and also a nurse...she was there the day sylvia cut her finger while slicing an onion and tended to her...put on iodine and a bandage for her...was a particularly depressing day for sylvia as well...one of her worst

OK well even though i hate it i have to say i was surprised to see that i actually guessed right the part about the person putting IODINE on the cut. Also if they are trying to cure the cut i would take it as an accidental cut, seeing as how if it were deliberate why would she want to stop the bleeding. I thought of iodine when it mentions the mill, because i thoght of wind mills and the way some have a net paddle and the iodine bottles have those as well. Well the one i had before. Ha k bye.

Cat: Very well done. I like the comment about manic laughter bounding off Borgesian involutions in the ol' brain sack. Very well put. Every time I read this poem I kinda am strangely awed by the deegree of pain she was in, so exorbitantly exhausted and yet, still you know..fire quil in embered calligraphy writing out the unimaginable throe of her heart.

Oh and Alfred. It's cool if you don't like my style of writing, I've been writing this way since I was 13...so...definately not contrived, but everyone is entitled to voice their preference and or objection. It's all good. The one thing we do have in common is that we both admire Plath so I guess I can't be all that bad. Take care Alfred