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Comments about this poem (Metaphors
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Sylvia Plath
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Sylvia Plath
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Amanda Piercy
(4/16/2009 5:27:00 PM) |
Also, (sorry for two posts!) I disagree with Cassandra because she wrote this poem during her FIRST pregnancy (not her second) and this was probably one of her most happier periods during her life.
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Amanda Piercy
(4/16/2009 5:24:00 PM) |
In discussion in my literature class we talked about whether Plath seemed happy or unhappy in her state of pregnancy. Unfortunately my teacher is a male, and unfortunately I do not think men can really grasp the feeling. I have not had children but I think she's happy. She basically says that she's gone this far and she can't turn back, but she is showing her excitement over the baby to come. She also seems curious and wonderous about the new life growing inside of her. Overall, I think the physical state of being large is probably hard for her to adjust to, but she seems completely at peace with the condition and excited for her little baby.
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Micheal Yost
(3/5/2009 8:14:00 PM) |
well first of all i was handed this poem by my english teacher for an assignment, and i need to solve the poem, and well i am basically agreeing with everything about being pregnant, but yet i am unsure on if she was happy or not happy, i am leaning more towards being unhappy. any comments or anything that will help me with this paper please email me yostm4589@uwc.edu
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Kaylers Smith
(2/26/2009 3:13:00 PM) |
I agree that this poem is about Plath's pregnancy, but in a biography I have read about the marriage between Plath and Hughes shows in great detail that she has no regrets about her second pregnancy. Plath loved being a mother, she loved babies. I agree that this poem is just stating the umcomfortability of being pregnant, with the constant 9 factor. Thou
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Trevor Devlin
(12/3/2008 9:36:00 AM) |
I have to disagree, Evelyn Ayers-Marsh, with only your comment about her pregnancy, partially. I believe it was a burden to her, that she was pregnant, and yes, i noticed she had the nine syllables in every line, nine months of pregnancy,9 lines of poetry, and the 9 metaphors. What i disagree with is that, I think she was between hating her pregnancy, and loving the child to come. If she truly hated it, she would have killed the baby, and herself (she was known to almost commit suicide multiple times, while also going through electro-shock therapy) . So, she obviously did not hate it, rather, she was just 'Sick of it, ' like listed in line 8, where she states 'I've Eaten a bag of Green Apples.' This means she was sick of her pregnancy, most likely, but she did not blame the child at all. It was her fault for getting pregnant. That is my opinion.
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Cassandra Key
(10/24/2008 10:02:00 AM) |
I have to agree with preivous speakers, this poem is about Plath herself being pregnant. It is known that the last child she had she was not that fond of having. So I beleive this poem is depicting her feelings about that. The diction she uses has more of a negative conotation. Words like loaf, tendrill, and elephant appear to more used more in the negative way. Also, it is not a good indication that a woman wants her child when she compairs the two births to that of livestock. The final statement, 'Boarded this train, there's no getting off', can also be taken that she doesn't want to be pregnant and would like to 'get off the train'.
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Libby A
(4/24/2008 11:55:00 PM) |
Raluca, I have to disagree....if you look at the poem, it seems pretty obvious that is about pregnancy. As Lee said, a riddle in nine syllables is an obvious euphemism for the nine months of child carrying. The various metaphors also suggest pregnancy. Calling herself an 'elephant' and 'a ponderous house' are obvious references to her size, as is 'a melon strolling on two tendrils', which is an obvious metaphor for her feeling of being enormous, but, granted, pregnancy is not obvious in these lines. However, 'this loaf's big with it's yeasty rising' is her comparing herself to a loaf of bread rising; or, her stomach growing bigger as the pregnancy progresses. 'Money's new-minted in this fat purse' is a metaphor for becoming pregnant, the 'new-minted' money obviously referring to the 'new' baby, and 'fat purse' is once again a reference to her size. 'A means, a stage' are again referring to her size, but 'a cow in calf' is an obvious metaphor for being pregnant, but seems to suggest that she doesn't view the pregnancy in a very positive way, in that she compares herself to a cow, and saying she is giving birth to a 'calf', something not even human. 'I've eaten a bag of green apples' also suggests that she isn't feeling that great about the pregnancy, almost as if she wants to pass of her growing stomach as the result of eating 'a bag of green apples'. The final line 'boarded the train there's no getting off' sums up her feeling of helplessness; she didn't really want a child, but since she 'boarded the train', or, got pregnant, there's nothing she can do: 'there's no getting off'. So, that's why I think the poem is about pregnancy.
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Lee S
(4/14/2008 10:08:00 PM) |
She discusses more than her proportions to display a correlation between herself and pregnancy. A riddle in nine syllables is an obvious euphemism to her nine months of child carrying. There is no doubt that she expresses a sort of melancholy to the situation, too, because she states that she's eaten a bag a green apples. This could be an allusion to the bible and the garden of eden, where eve eats the apple. IT could suggest that she finds her pregnancy a sin, especially considering her man left her after she became pregnant. The fact that she says she's boarding a train that she can't get off of is another sign that she really isn't comfortable with the fact that she's pregnant. It's almost as if this situation has stunted her life as is, which she was more than content with, or that there was more she wanted to do and now can't because she's... Well, pregnant.
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Raluca Croitoru
(2/28/2008 11:22:00 AM) |
I believe that this poem is not about a pregnant woman since the author imples that only by referring to her proportions. I think it's more about a woman who faces a crisis because she feels that she lost her identity('melon strolling on two tendrils') , she doesn't like herself anymore, idea implied by the powerful words which suggest her disproportion: 'elephant', 'ponderous house', 'fat purse'. She tries to regain her confidence, but she feels hopeless since 'there's no getting off'.
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