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http://bit.ly/2eeKq2W

Sylvia Plath lived her developed days in somber madness, profoundly attributing to the now-famous piece of work she produced in her lifetime. The clinical depression that overtook her life was the driving force behind her writing, and ultimately her unfortunate demise. SylviaPlath was only thirty years old when she took her own life.

Much of Plath's work details her mental health and life troubles, peculiarly the issues she experienced in her romantic life. I chose to translate her verse form "Mad Girl'due south Dearest Song," as I feel it is an accurate representation of Plath's state of heed during her troubles with love. Interestingly plenty, this poem was written years before she split with her husband Ted Hughes, whom she discovered was having an thing with another woman.

"Mad Daughter's Love Vocal"

"I close my eyes and all the earth drops expressionless
 I lift my lids and all is born again.
 (I think I made y'all up within my head.)"

The opening of the poem gives me such an unsettling feeling for some reason, but it's completely fantastic, as I believe this to exist Plath's intention. It'southward as if I am thrown into the swirling turmoil of Plath'due south mind, staring out from backside her eyelids, witnessing what she is witnessing. She creates these two worlds, these two distinct places, in the same frame of time. One where information technology is dark and most likely inside the confines of her ain mind when she closes her optics (this is affirmed past the recognition in the parenthesis), and the other of true reality in all its color when she opens them.

We are introduced to a struggle between reality and the inner workings of Plath'due south mind, as well every bit to an unnamed person these words are directed to: "yous." Plath suggests that she made upward this person in her head, which I remember hints to a possible dear that went wrong. Right later on the terminate of a relationship, it tends to feel like you're floating in limbo, wondering if it truly existed.

"The stars go waltzing out in blueish and ruby-red,
 And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
 I close my eyes and all the world drops expressionless."

Though I don't have a clue as to how stars waltzing ties into the poem, I do think that it's interesting that she paints them "in blue and cherry." In psychology, blue is a symbol of placidity and wisdom, while red symbolizes free energy and passion. The stark contrast of these meanings is further representation of the two worlds that Plath has created.

Perhaps when her eyes are open, her reality keeps her grounded and wise. But when her optics are closed, she succumbs to the passion of her thoughts and is consumed by them. The action of opening and closing her eyes is besides within the images that are created in this stanza. Her eyes are initially open to her colorful reality. But and then she chooses to let her mind slip dorsum into darkness, and she shuts her optics over again as if she's embracing that darkness. It seems as though Plath is struggling to determine which world she would rather be present in — the natural globe or her destructive mind.

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http://bit.ly/2dW51Ku

"I dreamed that y'all bewitched me into bed
 And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
 (I call back I made yous upwardly inside my head.)"

In that location is a stiff sense of delusion in these lines, making me think that her eyes are all the same airtight from the previous stanza, pregnant she's withal inside her ain caput. While she closes herself off from reality and gives into the darkness in her mind, she fantasizes that her lover has come back to her. She yearns to be intimate with that person once again, though she yet wonders if that relationship was fifty-fifty existent.

"God topples from the sky, hell'south fires fade:
 Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
 I shut my eyes and all the earth drops dead."

In this stanza, "God toppl[ing] from the heaven" and "hell's fires fad[ing]" makes for a stiff paradigm of her optics opening up to colored reality once again. Usually God is associated as a existence in the sky, a bluish heaven. And "hell'south fires," which are red , is symbolic of the inner turmoil she is experiencing. She uses the colors of blue and red once more here, as if to link dorsum to her previous stanza. It's as if these two worlds are clashing together to become Plath's truthful reality. "Seraphim" is defined as a celestial beingness — an angel — which I recollect is supposed to accentuate her colored reality every bit "Satan'southward men" similarly accentuate the darkness in her mind.

"I fancied you'd return the way you lot said,
 Simply I grow old and I forget your name.
 (I remember I made yous upwardly inside my head.)"

There is a very stiff feeling of false hope in the first line established past the passing of time. Plath grows old while she waits for her lover to return to her, just wonders once more if their love was real or if she fabricated it upward in her head. At this point, with the repetition of "(I think I made you upwardly inside my head)" throughout the verse form, it makes y'all wonder if this person Plath keeps referring to is nothing merely a figment of her imagination. Maybe she never was in beloved, merely only imagines that she was, considering she wishes she had someone to love. Maybe she has waited her whole life to love and exist loved. Perhaps that desire was never fulfilled, ultimately driving her mad.

"I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
 At to the lowest degree when spring comes they roar back once again.
 I close my eyes and all the earth drops dead.
 (I think I made you up inside my head.)"

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http://fleck.ly/2cZJsYu

I think "thunderbird" is a metaphor lightning here. Perhaps where she lived, lightning storms only came back in the spring fourth dimension, obviously skipping winter. Even though they aren't nowadays every twenty-four hours, they came back seasonally. She compares this to her lover never having come back at all, saying that it would take been easier to love someone who at to the lowest degree returned to her now and so. The poem ends with the familiar repetitions used throughout, as if to prod at the idea that the person this poem is directed to never actually existed. I think one of Plath'southward intentions with this verse form was to make her readers question whether or not this was a poem about unrequited or delusional love.

In whatsoever example, whichever interpretation you lot experience suits the poem all-time, in that location's no arguing that Sylvia Plath is a master of woe. It'south unfortunate that her cracking works derived from her mental illness, just it'south important that they live on.

— Bree Scott, Asst. Weblog Editor