Why, in a gas oven, dear Sylvia,
did you stick your pretty, middle-class head?
Was the life of upper suburbia
too much for you that you'd rather be dead?
If, like you, we gassed ourselves to death at thirty,
we'd never forgive ourselves for leaving
behind our children. We'd feel unworthy,
and selfish for causing them much grieving.
But, at eight, you witnessed your father's demise;
and bore for life an emotional scar
(which you never were able to exorcise),
a grief which you relived in “The Bell Jar.”
You should not be condemned, dear Sylvia,
for we knew not your melancholia—.
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Author:
The Beauteously Brainy Bard (
Offline) - Published: September 29th, 2024 07:25
- Comment from author about the poem: Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, “The Colossus and Other Poems,” and, “Ariel,” as well as “The Bell Jar,” a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her death. Plath was clinically depressed for most of her adult life, and was treated multiple times with electro-convulsive therapy, or ECT. On 11 February 1963 she took her own life at the age of 30 by sticking her head in a gas oven.
- Category: Sad
- Views: 4
- Users favorite of this poem: Cheeky Missy
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Comments1
Thank you very much for the notes since I never bothered to give much attention to Plath, hearing she'd allegedly commit suicide and the probable cause seeming plausible, I left it at that. This sonnet appears to rather beautifully tender her case as the form knows so well to do, leaving me with more knowledge than ever, thank you very much! I only find it interesting she gave her own children the same misery she knew, if this tribute is correct.
Excellently rendered and loaded with details, not to mention a subtle poignancy. I love it. Thank you very much for sharing.
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