April 18 by Sylvia Plath

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April 18

the slime of all my yesterdays
rots in the hollow of my skull

and if my stomach would contract
because of some explicable phenomenon
such as pregnancy or constipation

I would not remember you

or that because of sleep
infrequent as a moon of greencheese
that because of food
nourishing as violet leaves
that because of these

and in a few fatal yards of grass
in a few spaces of sky and treetops

a future was lost yesterday
as easily and irretrievably
as a tennis ball at twilight

Sylvia Plath

Read poems about / on: food, future, remember, moon, sleep, lost, sky, april

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Natasha Logan-mccall (1/24/2008 3:01:00 PM)
My birthday happens to be April 18th.

I can't admit that i feel a terribly special significance with this poem.

In one of Sylvia Plath's other poems 'You're' she speaks of her pregnancy which she has just discovered.
And from the way this was written I feel that the loss of a life in hers is what prompted the writing of this poem.
Be it her child or just a family member.

But hey, thats just my guess.

Shane Clawson (11/14/2007 9:34:00 PM)
As far as I am concerned this is a negative outlook on life or S.P. was full of regret as she wrote these lines. I discovered her novel The Bell Jar and I just found out more about this writer/poet. Little did I know that she was successful in writing but she had some kind of depression becuase the poor girl committed suicide. I wonder what was driving her to end her life so early. I guess I will find out as I turn the pages and read her autobiography. You are truely missed, S.P.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

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