Sylvia Plath 1932 1963 A brief biography childhood

Sylvia Plath 1932 -1963

A brief biography: childhood • Born in Boston on October 27, 1932, to Aurelia Schober and Otto Plath • Her father was German-Polish; uni professor and bee-keeper • Idolised her father and longed to please him • In 1940, when Sylvia was 8, her father died and she published her first poem.

Sylvia Plath as a young woman • At school she was a top student, excelling in English • 1950 received a scholarship to Smith College • 1953 won a competition to guest -edit Mademoiselle magazine in New York. • Suffered mental & emotional exhaustion • Is rejected for a Harvard writing course “I still do not know myself. Perhaps I never will. I am afraid of getting older. I am afraid of getting married…I want, I think, to be omniscient…I think I would like to call myself the girl who wanted to be God. . Never, never, will I reach the perfection I long for with all my soul. ”. . (diary, age 17)

• Worked as a guest editor at Mademoiselle during her junior year in 1953. • August 24, 1953 -she attempts suicide • She writes about these experiences in her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar • Also in 1953, Sylvia received bipolar electro-convulsive shock treatments

Sylvia goes to England • 1954 Plath went to Harvard summer school, graduates with distinction in 1955 • Wins a Fulbright Scholarship to Cambridge

• 1956 She met Ted Hughes, a poet, at a Cambridge University party • According to her journal, at this meeting he kissed her and she bit him on the cheek, making him bleed. • It was an intense relationship and they were married within months.

Motherhood & Writing • After 2 years teaching in America the couple decided to commit to writing full-time and return to England • In 1960 Plath had her first child, Frieda, and published her first book of poetry, ‘The Colossus’. • In 1962, following a traumatic appendix operation and the birth of their son Nicholas, Plath's writing became more frantic.

Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes • Sylvia & Ted’s relationship was passionate and tumultuous • She was attracted to his physical power, his way with animals and his reputation as a poet. She feared losing him 1962 June: 2 nd suicide attempt • July: Discovers Ted’s affair with Assia Weevill. • Sept: They separate • Oct: She writes 26 poems in one month • Dec: She takes her 2 children and moves into a maisonette in London • She prepares Ariel, a collection of 41 poems

1963 • The Bell Jar is published under a pseudonym and receives good reviews • 11 th February 1963, she succeeded in taking her life • 1965: Ariel was published. • 1982 she is posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.

Reoccurring symbols/themes in Plath’s poetry… • Bees: Linked to her father • Sea: Sylvia spent time with her grandfather exploring the sea; the sea as salvation. • The struggle to manage womanhood, motherhood, marriage, and writing. • Man’s cruelty, loss and betrayal, dealing with depression. • Elements of nature; seasonal changes reflecting mood and emotion; sunrise as a progression of time and change. • Shadows: symbolic of the mind, darkness, innerturmoil

How do we define Confessional Poetry? l. The label was first used by the critic M. L. Rosenthal, to describe poems which reveal to readers aspects of the poets’ private life that would conventionally be kept hidden l. Reaction against impersonality of the High. Modernists l. Emerged in the late 1950 s and early 1960 s in the works of Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, and Allen Ginsberg (among others)

How do we define Confessional Poetry? l. Autobiographical manner of addressing personal experiences l. First person l. Careful attention and use of prosody--the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry l. Poems are created to be read and listened to aloud l. Different uses of register: formal, colloquial, etc.