Plath’s poems are as difficult to write about as they were to read. I think her story is particularly haunting because she was a beautiful, intelligent, gifted and successful woman; to see someone possessing those characteristics fall into such horrible despair is disturbing for us, I think.
I have to agree with what was said in class about Plath’s way with language. Although I’m not necessarily well-versed in poetry, and I especially don’t know much about confessional poetry, I think anyone can appreciate the way her words sound together when her poems are recited out loud. She plays with assonance and consonance in her work in a way that I think is completely unique. All of Daddy is assonance, the repated “oo” sound we talked about. Another example is at the end of “Cut”:
How you jump—-
Trepanned veteran,
Dirty girl,
Thumb stump.
“Cut” is disturbing for sure, but it sounds totally beautiful. I think the disagreement between Plath’s subject matter and the sound of the language is what makes reading her poetry so chillding.
