Studying The Poetry Of Plath And Hughes

Studying The Poetry Of Plath And Hughes Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 February 11, 1963) and Ted Hughes (17 August 1930 28 October 1998) are known as some of the best poets of all time. They wrote with passion and flare and their poetry brought fire to the souls of their readers. I have always found that Hughes last poetry book, Birthday Letters, was, in short, a reply to the feelings between him and Sylvia, those judging him for her death, and, in some small form, Sylvias poetry. In this essay, I will be discovering the core significances and connections found between their poetry. I will take two poems from each poet and analyze each one, find the links between one and the other or, in some cases, their life. I will begin with Sylvia Plaths The Courage of Shutting Up, which was written in 1962, during the same week in which she wrote The Detective, The Courage of Shutting Up and a series of poems collectively called Bees The Bee Meeting, The Arrival of the Bee Box, Stings, The Swarm, and Wintering. The courage of the shut mouth, in spite of artillery! unlocks the beginning of Sylvia Plaths The Courage of Shutting-Up, a poem written about the cruel circularity of fury, the way it makes the disks of the brain revolve, like the muzzles of cannon, a needle journeying in its groove. One of the many poems Plath wrote in her illustrious eruption of passionate rage in the autumn of 1962 after becoming aware of Ted Hughess unfaithfulness, this poem was part of the monstrous bombings of literature that Plath let soar throughout the course of the twentieth centurys most well-known poetic outburst. When Hughes betrayed Plath, she grinded her pen into a knife and went used in the only way she knew how. Intimacy became her nuclear warhead: living beneath someones skin always makes it easier to condemn them. Many times she tells herself in her journals I think the worst thing is to exteriorize those jitterings so I try and shut up and not blither to Ted. His sympathy is a constant temptation. She argues with herself throughout her life about things she should and shouldnt say to Ted Should I tell the boy, before its too late warn him to set his sights on other prey more domesticated prey, at that. Or should I just shut up and plunge maybe making us both unhappy. This poem seems to be the release of every pent up emotion, thought, secret, that she ever held inside, that she ever kept from him, that she ever kept her mouth shut about. The title The Courage of Shutting up, previously known as The Courage of Quietness, gives an excellent summary of the poem, although, without reading it, there could be many assumptions about it. For example: A suffering child, a mute, a mime, and many more examples spring to the minds of those with true imagination. As in many of Plaths poetry, there is no rhyming scheme, which could be her way of portraying her anger, how she is so outraged by all the secrets she has kept, that she does not care for rhymes anymore. Another example is that she lets some of her lines flow over into the next. In the first stanza she makes it clear that she is holding back some deep dark secrets inside her by the simple mention of the shut mouth, in spite of artillery!, signifying that she has a great many secrets to tell, shamefully though, she has not told them. The line pink and quiet, a worm gives the image of the tongue sitting peacefully in its confinement, the mouth, the head, the mind, but the word basking gives us the impression that it is just waiting, for its time, for its moment, for the mind to finally give in to the temptation of letting go all of the secrets balled up inside of it. Her disks of outrage emphasise this idea, as black disks seem to be referring to a pair of black old records, filled with secrets that are meant to be played. Her outrage at the knowledge of her husbands infidelity could have been one of the inspirations for this idea. The outrage of the sky leaves us under the impression that her anger is so greats that it fills the sky itself and the last line leans strongly towards the thought that the disks in her mind, which could also be referred to as her mind, her memories, ask to be played, or in the minds case, relived or told but without their needle, their tongue, that lay basking quietly, untiring, their story can never be told. The second stanza is also filled with rages, as she explains that her disks are filled with memories of bastardies, bastardies, usages, desertions and doubleness which could be interpreted as a rough translation of all the awful sufferings her husband put her through. Her needle, or, in medical terms, tongue, plays around inside her mouth, or its groove. Her tongue is her most prized weapon. Her inner beast could be considered her dagger, her whip, it is her secret weapon, per say. During the final part of the second stanza and most of the third, describes a surgeon turned into a tattooist. This could be construed as her take on her transformation from a great poet laureate, to a housewife and a mother. Obviously she loves her children, but if you take this description how most do, she is clearly describing how she felt during her writers block. Shes tattooing over the same blue grievances, in other words, shes describing how she wrote, what she apparently considered to be, the same awful poems, over and over. The mention of The snakes and the babies gives a huge reminder of Edge, leaving us under the impression that one could have something to do with the other and that The Courage of Shutting Up could have influenced, or at least slightly inspired Edge. The fact that she says he is quiet and that he has seen to much death, his hands are full of it gives the idea that she thought she had written too many failed poetry attempts to try and go back and try again. So the disks of the brain revolve like the muzzles of cannon, could be describing how her memories replay themselves over and over in her head, grinding at her mind to speak the bastardies that she knows so deeply of. When she mentions the antique billhook, the tongue she is describing once again how dangerous her words would be if they were released. The billhook is a traditional cutting tool used mainly in forestry for cutting smaller woody materials such as shrubs and branches. If her words were only set free they would destroy her enemy with indefatigable power, meaning that she is extremely persistent and untiring. It must be cut out because it has nine tails like a cat o nine tails whip. There are three ways to lash with this type op whip. Soft lashings leave marks but they will heal, severe lashings leave scars that will not heal and savage lashings can kill. Clearly Plath was set to kill, which is why her whip must be cut out. It even flays from the air, once it gets going, w hich gives it even more power and even more reason for it to be cut off. However, in the fifth stanza we see that the antique billhook, the tongue has been put by, cut out, silenced, maybe even tongue-tied up with the fox heads, the otter heads, the heads of dead rabbits, which could be interpreted as a strange representation of all the women that Plaths husband had been with so it may be her description of how he was trying to put her up there with them. Clearly he failed. However, when we consider this from a different perspective, there is the possibility of the heads being her past poetry, a vast collection of different animals, some more dangerous than others but none so dangerous as the tongue itself that put all of those heads up there. Plath describes it as marvellous, so it is clear that it is one of her most prized possessions. It has pierced many things in its time; meaning that her spike of a tongue has pierced many a person or, some people might think it has silenced them when in a verbal discussion. When she mentions the eyes, the repetition of the eyes enhances their significance; perhaps she is referring to the well known phrase If looks could kill. She continues to write that mirrors can kill and if she is comparing mirrors to her eyes like some would think, one could assume she is speaking of how eyes mirror emotions, feelings, etc as they are Terrible rooms in which a torture goes on one can only watch showing that there is pain and suffering in the eyes but one can only sit and watch it play out in the eyes as if in shock, entrancement, or from paralysation. However, she mentions after to not worry about the eyes probably insinuating that they cannot actually kill anything or anyone. They are white and shy signifying purity, innocence. Perhaps she seeks to show that she does not use her eyes to kill, but her words. Also, in the last stanza, Plath describes how her eyes are not stool pigeons, meaning a criminals look out or a decoy, so they are not purposely looking for anything. She says that they are folded like flags and it is well known that in some countries when a soldier is killed the flag is folded in a certain way and given to the soldiers family. Their death rays folded like flags Of a country no longer heard of, An obstinate independency Insolvent among the mountains. Moving onto the selected poems by Ted Hughes, Freedom of Speech was published in 1998 along with all the others found in Ted Hughes Birthday Letters, about his relationship with the American poet Sylvia Plath, who committed suicide in 1963, the book was described as Book of poems breaks Hughes long silence on Plaths life and death. The title Freedom of Speech doesnt really give an exceptional overview of the narrative poem, it seems to hint towards the idea that everyone in the poem with the exception of the author himself, who is mentioned in the poem, and the person he is addressing are speaking, smiling, laughing, etc. There doesnt seem to be any kind of rhyme scheme, but there a few random lines in which a half rhyme can be found, could this be a possible indication of how scattered everything described in the poem is, the fact that everyone is laughing but him and her, the main characters, the birthday girl, could make everything rather disrupted. He does not end each line with a comma or a full stop, like is usually done in an a b a b rhyming scheme, which tends to be the most frequent, he lets a few of the lines spill over into the next, enhancing the idea of a scattered, desperate stream of consciousness throughout the poem. The theme is clearly fictional, as it is impossible for the person he is addres sing to actually be there on her sixtieth birthday because she had ended her life thirty years before. He describes Sylvia as a quiet bystander, sitting in silence, feeding her last book, her last love, grapes from her lips pursed like a kiss. The word kiss refers to her love for the book Ariel which was a gathering of the last poems she wrote before she committed suicide after a life of depression which ended in loneliness in 1963. The word kiss also gives the impression that Sylvia is caressing the book, and the ss also makes it sound so. The fact that the author describes the two as Ariel sits on your knuckle in the cakes glow stands to reason that she and the book are in darkness, lighted only by the cakes glow, as it would not have been that bright had the lights been on. This bring up the question: Does this mean the whole room was in darkness or just that plain solid area in which the tortured poetess and her last poetry book could be found? If it be that Hughes is trying to demonstrate that the whole room is in darkness, then the party was clearly a false and it is quite possible that he was lying to her about everyone laughing so that she would start the laughter and happiness. The trouble is that since the person referred to is clearly void of such emotions and, to be frank, isnt even there, he could be talking to himself, willing himself to start the laughter. If however the whole room is bright minus that one area in which the cake sits, in which Sylvia and her last love sits, then this has turned into a com pletely different poem. If the second option is true, then it seems that the person being referred to is a sort of ghost, sitting in the darkness, remaining solemn and unemotional, haunting him on this memorable day, her sixtieth birthday, a full thirty years after her suicide in 1963. It has always been discussed that Hughes never stopped loving or thinking about Miss Sylvia Plath and the fact that Ted Hughes even wrote the book of poems which includes Freedom of Speech supports that theory because clearly he must have thought about her often to write such a long and elaborate poetry book. In the second stanza the narrator describes the others as laughing, as if grateful. This could be trying to tell her that they are grateful to be invited, to be in the presence of such esteemed poets. There is a huge group of people the whole reunion, old friends and new friends, some famous authors, your court of brilliant minds, and publishers and doctors and professors. The entire third and fourth stanza gives the effect of a metaphor, as it has given human qualities to dead relatives, inanimate objects and the flowers around them. The description of Sylvia herself could be construed as a metaphor as it is impossible for her to actually be there as she died thirty years ago. His sense of wording in the last three stanzas are noticeable as he mentions that the children are hers, not theirs, and yet simply calls Ariel by its name, giving the illusion that Ariel is a single-minded being that Sylvia did not create, and if she did it was not alone as it was Hughes who discovered the poems and put them together, so he obviously does not say it is hers because he was also a part of its creation as he put the poems together and corrected all her mistakes that he found in the poems. The one last mentionable point is that he uses capital letters in the last line when he says Only You and I do not smile. Normally when someone uses the word you there is no capital letter but he has used one and has obviously done it for a reason. This could be to illustrate her importance in his life, to make her seem more important because at the time she is there with him, on her sixtieth birthday, sitting solemnly in the darkness with her last love, Ariel, and because of that Hug hes cannot join in on the fun everyone else is experiencing because he feels attached to her, haunted by her spirit being there. In conclusion, an analysis of Freedom of Speech shows that this poem is an author-oriented, first-person, single-angle (only the viewpoint of Hughes is shown) narrative poem which contains a mixture of modes (prose and verse). The courage of shutting up The courage of the shut mouth, in spite of artillery! The line pink and quiet, a worm, basking. There are black disks behind it, the disks of outrage, And the outrage of the sky, the lined brain of it. The disks revolve, they ask to be heard- Loaded, as they are, with accounts of bastardies. Bastardies, usages, desertions and doubleness, The needle journeying in its groove, Silver beast between two dark canyons, A great surgeon, now a tattooist, Tattooing over and over the same blue grievances, The snakes, the babies, the tits On mermaids and two-legged dream girls. The surgeon is quiet, he does not speak He has seen too much death, his hands are full of it So the disks of the brain revolve, like the muzzles of cannon. Then there is that antique billhook, the tongue, Indefatigable, purple. Must it be cut out? It has nine tails, it is dangerous And those it flays from the air, once it gets going! No, the tongue, too, has been put by, Hung up in the library with the engravings of Rangoon And the fox heads, the otter heads, the heads of dead rabbits. It is a marvellous object- The things it has pierced in its time. But how about the eyes, the eyes, the eyes? Mirrors can kill and talk, they are terrible rooms In which a torture goes on one can only watch The face that lived in this mirror is the face of a dead man. Do not worry about the eyes- They may be white and shy, they are no stool pigeons, Their death rays folded like flags Of a country no longer heard of, An obstinate independency Insolvent among the mountains. Freedom of Speech At your sixtieth birthday, in the cakes glow, Ariel sits on your knuckle. You feed it grapes, a black one, then a green one, From between your lips pursed like a kiss. Why are you so solemn? Everybody laughs As if grateful, the whole reunion Old friends and new friends, Some famous authors, your court of brilliant minds, And publishers and doctors and professors, Their eyes creased in delighted laugher even The late poppies laugh, one loses a petal. The candles tremble their tips Trying to contain their joy. And your Mummy Is laughing in her nursing home. Your children Are laughing from opposite sides of the globe. Your Daddy Laughs deep in his coffin. And the stars, Surely the stars, too, shake with laughter. And Ariel What about Ariel? Ariel is happy to be here. Only you and I do not smile.

Mountains Beyond Mountains Essay

The title is a haitian proverb that translates â€Å"beyond the mountains, more mountains.† As it relates to the book, I believe mountains beyond mountains means the never ending struggle to control disease involving the poor. In this case, the poor are the haitian people who are in a struggle to improve their health and the institution in place allow this to perpetuate. Farmer sees health in a way that differs from most. Farmer believes improvement of health is not only the actual treatment of the disease. Instead, it is the complete assimilation of institutions where the poor are given power to succeed politically as well as the access to health care. This is evident in what resources Farmer’s clinic has available to his patients that go beyond access to equipment and medications that are not easily attainable in Haiti. In order to provide the necessary resources for a healthy community today and into the future they provide a school, housing, kitchen that feeds people daily, sanitation, as well as filtered water systems. These different resources combined make up what a community needs to have an improvement of health today and into the future. This philosophy rings true for me. How can you expect to have a healthy community when these basic needs are not available. In a country like the United States these resources are at at your disposal in the most rural locations and their benefits forg otten because of it. Farmer’s Story shows how a small group of practitioners can make a positive and lasting impact in a world with poverty and a lack of health care provisions to those without insurance. One major component to this ability is the level of sacrifice these practitioners were able to endure. For many, the dreams of being a doctor include the big bucks that come along with it. In order to provide the level of care Farmer believed was necessary he sacrificed an extraordinary amount of his personal wealth. Another major sacrifice was his time with family. He split his year in Boston and Haiti so the geographic aspect was limiting. Then, the enormous amount of work that seemed never ending (mountains beyond mountains) kept  him busy way beyond an average 9 to 5, leaving no time for vacation to visit. These sacrifices are not to be taken lightly. I don’t know if I would be willing to live for others like Farmer has. It takes a certain character that one is born with to do this. Farmer used every tool he had to help. He sweet talked workers at hospitals and walked away with tuberculosis medicine for the poor and even paid for it himself. When caught he paid back the 96 thousand dollars in medicine he had take. When he was with others he would lecture all he came into contact with on the plight of the poor. He felt as though the poor were all too often forgotten. Tuberculosis control was the perfect example of this. Pharmaceutical companies had controlled TB in wealthy countries and made no effort in poor nations like haiti because it did not make sense financially. Once Farmer came into contact with a resistant form of TB in haiti he was on a mission to make MDR available for all not just the wealthy. The biggest block was cost. His goal of MDR for all was not shared by pharmaceutical companies that wanted to keep the prices high. That didn’t sway him one bit. Ultimately, Farmer was able to acheive his goal and make MDR affordable for all. This motivation with no regard to a personal financial benefit is an attribute I have seldom seen in my lifetime. I imagine Farmer had been approached or had the opportunity to make huge profits from his position and public image. This ethical character seems mythical in today’s world of business and bottom lines. His ethical standard is something to aspire to. The most intriguing quality I see in Farmer is his ability to understand the position of the poor in all its complexity. Wether the person is from Haiti or the United States he treats the patient with a respect that puts the patient at ease. His overall goal is to help the patient in a manner where it improves their overall health. One example that stuck out was Farmer’s experience with Joe a drug addict who doesn’t take his medication or eat properly. He sits with him and asks what his needs are in order to have a successful change in health. The response was definitely unique. His needs were a warm place to stay, 6 pack of beer, person to make sure he takes his medication, and someone to make sure he eats. Instead of listening and  completely dismissing his needs as out of the question he promises to try his best. On a board he writes what Joe’s current situation and the situation he wants to place him in and begins his mission. Ultimately he finds Joe a homeless shelter but they do not allow alcohol, but that doesn’t stop Farmer from pleading Joe’s case. This unorthodox method for providing the care Farmer felt would make a real change in Joe’s health was impressive. Farmer’s story is impressive. After reading this book I understand that a medical career is more than the good life. The abilities we are about to have can help so many and we need to know that is the goal of a good practitioner.

What Is A Learning Disability - 1280 Words

Children are uniquely made by God and the parents that he has entrusted to have stewardship over their lives. There are no two children that are exactly alike. They may have similar tendencies or characteristics, but there is something different about each individual that will eventually come to the surface. This report will give in-depth insight on a student with learning disabilities that is included in a regular classroom, receives classroom modifications, according to his IEP, and receives additional services offered by resource teachers. What is a Learning Disability? What is a learning disability? A learning disability can be explained in a variety of ways but it deals with the way the brain is wired that may cause a student to have†¦show more content†¦This also makes a person lose focus and not have the ability to concentrate long enough to complete a task****. The Square in the Circle The square being referenced is a student by the name of Bryar Jackson. This title was chosen to explain that all children are different in their own unique ways. Bryar is in the fifth grade. He is eleven years old and his learning disabilities are Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and Specific Learning Disability (SLD) in writing and mathematical calculations. ADHD is a disorder that a student to have a hard time focusing and it makes it hard for the student to be able to sit still. The student will often times perform poorly in class because this disorder keeps them from being able to be still long enough to completer the classroom assignments*. ODD is a disorder that cause one to have issues with the person that may have charge over them such as their parents or teachers*. This causes the student to argue and be disobedient with authority and others. Bryar’s academic strength is in reading. He likes reading and his favorite pastime is to read on the laptops in class with a reading program called Big Universe that the teacher allows the students to use with many books to choose from. Bryar struggles in math. He hates math and will do all that he can to avoid math completely. He will finish any math assignment as soon as he can, regardless if the answers

My Friendship With My Friend - 983 Words

As a little girl, I have been always told to act in a way that I think is correct. I did not the true meaning of that until I got to Grade 7. I became good friends with a girl. She became part of my group that included my former best friend and I. It consisted of three people, which made me a bit doubtful, because I knew that meant someone would always be on the side, depending on the situation. Unfortunately, my new friend usually fell into that situation. I did not realize that because I was so absorbed in my friendship with my former best friend. Being so absorbed in my friendship with my former best friend, I said bad things about my new friend behind her back, so I can keep my friendship with her. We avoided her on purpose, and we†¦show more content†¦It was not good for her either. She was also crying as much as I was. I must have scared her by screaming in her face. When I walked into TA class crying like crazy, my teacher got really worried. She realized that the fight between my friend and I got out of hand, and it was starting to hurt me. So, she called the two of us together to fix it. It was an emotional experience. We both talked about how we were rude to each other and said sorry to each other. Even though it seems like an official mending of our friendship, it was not. In the same month, I moved to Tom Baines because my parents bought a new house. She left for Houston in October. I did invite her over once, but she didn’t come over because she was busy. I was not able to give her the apology I wanted to give to her. Our lives went by for around three years without any communication. We blocked each other from everything so we were never able to contact each other. I thought that I was never going to be able to give her the apology that she deserved. I didn’t want this fight from three years ago to ruin our friendship. It was from three years ago when we were younger, foolish, and more naà ¯ve than we are now. 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