Canoeing through the dark channels of Sylvia Plath's verses

A verse I read, a mile I fell. A whole stanza, I was spiraling through a dark descent. A book I read, and I had become a mind in Plath’s world. When I first read Sylvia Plath's poetry, I felt like I was canoeing through the dark and mysterious channels of her mind. Her words were like rapids, rushing me through the depths of her psyche. The more I read, the more I became intrigued by her life. Hours went by thinking about the ink that fuelled her work. There is a whole world that she lived, her relationship with Ted Hughes, and years that nobody saw. In this article, I will explore Plath's poetry and her complex relationship with Hughes.

Plath's Poetry

The words come together to form bare and brutal confessions. She speaks through her poetry about things that we rarely dare speak about. Sylvia Plath's poetry is often characterized by its confessional and deeply personal nature. Her words are raw, emotional, and haunting. Take this for example:

"I am terrified by this dark thing

That sleeps in me;

All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity."

This verse is from ‘Elm’. It slowly grows and speaks about an unknown anxiety, a sort of fear about a dark force or emotion that she feels resides within her.

You’ll find similar tones and tremors throughout her work. It is majorly about depression, suicide, and the struggle for identity. Her work is a reflection of the turmoil she experienced in her own life.

One of Plath's most famous poems is "Daddy". There, she grapples with her complicated feelings toward her father, who died when she was eight years old. Read and you’ll find her addressing her father directly, accusing him of being a Nazi and a vampire. Its sheer soul is a statement of her unresolved anger and pain. And then came Ted Hughes.

Plath's relationship with Ted Hughes

Sylvia Plath met Ted Hughes at a party in 1956. And like two massive stars spiraling and falling toward each other, these two poets were married just a few months later. Their relationship was tumultuous and passionate. Feels ironic, but it is speculated so. Since then, it has been the subject of much speculation and analysis.

Plath's friends and family blamed Hughes for her suicide in 1963. These are some of the dark pages of her literature. They claimed that he had been unfaithful and emotionally abusive. But as with any tale, theirs too had another side. There also were those who defended Hughes. They argued that he was a supportive husband who tried to help Plath through her struggles with mental illness. Was it her mental illness under which she succumbed, or was it her relationship with Ted that led her toward this? No one clearly knows.

Their tale has caught the space of many pages in books & magazine. It still remains shrouded in mystery and controversy. However, what is clear is that Plath's poetry continues to resonate with readers today, speaking to the deep and complex emotions that we all experience. When we read her words, we are reminded that we are not alone in our struggles. We learn that there is power in sharing our stories with the world. So, what is stopping you from reading her yet? Go through an eBay alternative and see what suits you the best. It could be the great ‘Lady Lazarus’ that bleeds the bare blood of her mental illness; it could be ‘The Bell Jar’ that speaks about the journey of Esther Greenwood toward becoming a poet. Whatever it is, I say that it surely will pull you toward its strong narrative and push you into a world that none but Plath knows in depth.