poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

i believe that this poem has to do with Sylvia disapointment in Ted Houghd adultry. She thought he was perfect and she always was a perfectionist. this time she noticed that, that perfect person, (Ted Houghs) was not so perfect and had cheated on her, and broke that image she had of him.

I am doing a literary essay on Sylvia Plath, now reading about her life and all the hardships she has been through I think that this poem is about her husband that had cheated on her. The man she describes in her poem seems perfect "sung be moon-struck, kissed me quite insane." which may be the way she looked at her husband to be and when she says "i think i made you up inside my head" she realized he is not (because he cheated on her) When she speaks about how he said he would return and she grew old and forgot his name i think she is speaking of how when she met her husband they were in love and that man she fell in love with was lost when he did what he did and he never returned. She went insane after what happned with her husband and might have been contimplating suicide that is why she spoke of "i shut my eyes and all the world drops dead" later she committed suicide. Thats just my take on the poem.

the poem is basically a paradox.
i is a very sructured poem a villanelle written in iambic pentameter, but why would a mad person write something so structured? wouldnt they write something bizzare, crazy and unoganized? thus poses the quetion; is she really mad? or oes she just think she is? by the way i love this poe. it is so beautiful and hardly garbage.

this poem reminds me of my relatiuonship wiht my ex bf it is a beautiful poem and is so true

i believe this is one of her best poems ever written. it reflects one of her many inner personalities and she is defenately talking about herself not a random girl.the poem has a contrast with good and evil when she shuts her eyes she thinks of death but then opens them again and forgets it all.she talks about a lover she once dated or maybe never had and the poem is in speech marks suggesting she is narrating us her thoughts. either way it's striking and very cleverly written

SHE DID NOT MEAN LITERAALY THAT HE WAS MADE UP! he no longer is there physically...therefore it seems like a dream a made up wish that did not happen to her.

After having read 'The Bell Jar' and put this poem in context with the story it seems to make a lot more sense.

This poem was written in 1954 and her first suicide attempt occured in 1953. If the book is anything to go by (and it is claimed to be autobiographical in nature) the main character's lover, Buddy, turns out not to be as wonderful as she expected toward the end of the bookwhen at the beginning she admires him from afar.

When they do get together, the relationship between Esther and Buddy deteriorates to the point where, when she loses her virginity to him (after her stay in the phsychiatric hospital), she feels for him far differently from the way she did when she was enfatuated with him.

The poem seems to be a juxtaposition of the kind of lover she thought/hoped the boy was and the reality of how he turned out to be. It speaks to me of disappointment and not so much coping as coming to terms with the fact that he will no longer in her life - she's just going through a break-up and sometimes being alone or being rejected might make a person consider what the point of living is, the 'why' of life - hence she dabbles with solipsisms - "I shut my eyes and all the world is dead, I lift my eyes and all is born again" which to me seems somewhat similar Descartes' "I think, therefore I exist".

I love the line "But I grow old and I forget your name", it just sounds so much like what a girl might feel and wish to say to an an ex-lover; it makes so much sense I get goosebumps. In riting this poem it doesn't seem so much that she's saying she's forgotten him, she's just trying to move on - 'trying' being the key word, because if she was really over him, she wouldn't be writing a poem about him. So that line might also mean she's weary of thinking about him and just wants to get on with her life, to forget his name, and she's on her way to doing just that but she's not quite there yet.

I can see why this poem would speak to any girl who's been through a break-up, the poem emits such a youthful bitterness and emotional candour it's hard not to like it. I know it's one of her earliest and perhaps lesser enigmantic poems but it speaks volumes to me.

Apologies for the long-winded thoughts, I'm no authority on the subject (I don't even study languages/literature/english) but I thought I'd put in my opinion, hope it helps.

Reading these comments...I've come across quite a few people who seems to think this poem has something to do with Ted Hughes (Her ex-husband)....She wrote this poem long before they met and so this poem could not have had anything to do with him... She was about 18 years old when she wrote this poem and the idea that she was completely insane is insane... Of course she was troubled... She had gone through shock therapy but so has many incredible artists such hemmingway and Anne Sexton who also committed suicided but this poem was not about another personality....this is too structured for a mad woman... The idea is being so in love with someone... having this feeling but being unsure if it was ever real... For example, a divorce woman... could go back and think of the way her ex made her feel and wonder if he ever existed or she just made him up because he is no longer the man she once knew... Or perhaps it is simply a love that never was because she is so troubled and can't get passed all of her own emotional issues... I can certainly relate to that... One thing for sure... this is not about another personality and this poem does not display a man woman.... It is an incredibly beautiful poem

This just further solidifies my position on poetry in general: it's completely wretched, especially when it's about love. There's nothing worse than love/heartache poetry that also rhymes. Lot's of head/instead and love/glove action going on. Horrid. Just horrid. The emotion should be subtle, weaved into a stronger fabric of description. Above all, avoid cliches, since they never portray real feeling, but simply generalize.

Unreciprocated love is not the best kind of love. It is the cruelest most destructive kind of love, which holds one back, for various reasons, from finding true love and which can cause real damage.

I do believe this is about unreciprocated love. For me, and I'm admittedly very emotional about this, it is about how I fell in love with a man who, as it turned out, I really didn't know. I believe I made him up inside my head -- clinging to brief displays of sensitivity, compassion, etc. -- and I clung to this apparition despite evidence that he was not really this great guy I'd made him out to be. I do think I made him up inside my head. I think I was in love with a facade.

I think it represents all of the "bewitching" that is done in the beginning of relationships, during the courtship stage, when people are putting best feet forward, trying to impress, and trying to get.... as Lauryn Hill put it, "that thing".

And, Lord, I hope I am able to forget his name.