for Sylvia Plath
O Sylvia, Sylvia,
with a dead box of stones and spoons,
with two children, two meteors
wandering loose in a tiny playroom,
with your mouth into the sheet,
into the roofbeam, into the dumb prayer,
(Sylvia, Sylvia
where did you go
after you wrote me
from Devonshire
about raising potatoes
and keeping bees?)
what did you stand by,
just how did you lie down into?
Thief —
how did you crawl into,
crawl down alone
into the death I wanted so badly and for so long,
the death we said we both outgrew,
the one we wore on our skinny breasts,
the one we talked of so often each time
we downed three extra dry martinis in Boston,
the death that talked of analysts and cures,
the death that talked like brides with plots,
the death we drank to,
the motives and the quiet deed?
(In Boston
the dying
ride in cabs,
yes death again,
that ride home
with our boy.)
O Sylvia, I remember the sleepy drummer
who beat on our eyes with an old story,
how we wanted to let him come
like a sadist or a New York fairy
to do his job,
a necessity, a window in a wall or a crib,
and since that time he waited
under our heart, our cupboard,
and I see now that we store him up
year after year, old suicides
and I know at the news of your death
a terrible taste for it, like salt,
(And me,
me too.
And now, Sylvia,
you again
with death again,
that ride home
with our boy.)
And I say only
with my arms stretched out into that stone place,
what is your death
but an old belonging,
a mole that fell out
of one of your poems?
(O friend,
while the moon's bad,
and the king's gone,
and the queen's at her wit's end
the bar fly ought to sing!)
O tiny mother,
you too!
O funny duchess!
O blonde thing!
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Comments
1 - 9 of 9
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So incredibly moving and a reminder for me of what I have been saying, ever since I ever encountered the suicide of someone I knew: Don't kill yourself!! Look what it does to other people!
I love what she does at the end with those four affectionate lines. -
well only as Anne Sexton could do. Beautiful, profound, no hi dden messages. why not feature S. Plath here also?
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From guest Caitlin (contact)
I love how she added O in front of everything. That's not really her style (from what I know). But Plath used it a lot! [= -
Amazing
This is amazing! I could feel her pouring in through this as if she were crying when she wrote it. So much emotion! So much power! -
Poetic to someone, crap to another
I love Sexton and Plath too, I think it's interesting, I never knew she wrote about her friend's death... but it makes me wonder why, if she met someone like her, it wasn't enough to pull through. -
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hi re- Sexton For Sylvia Plath poem
I see you..... wonder why, if she met someone like her, it wasn't enough to pull through. When I was a child maby 8 or 9 my mom had a beautiful friend, I mean very pritty lady that I liked she attempted suicides many times. My mom would drag me out with her to save this woman. When I got older I remembered that and I also did the same, attempted suicide many time till I was about 19 years old the first time I was 16 now I'm 51. I think I looked up to this woman as she was importent to my mother. So I think Sexton related to Plaths pain and beleved there was peace in suicide. For pain can be blinding and out of control you could do anything to make it go away...... poety could have been one thing she tryed to make it go away or suicide , drugs , or kill another person to make the pain go away . My life changed for the better and that helped me . Hope this finds you well
sorry I'm a bad speller
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I very much disagree with the comment regarding Sexton, she is one of the greatest poets, and will be highly remembered as such.
The fault of that commenter lies with this poem only- She is suffering a little bit of nonchalant grief, and she is highly jealous of her beloved friend.
To understand this one would need to know the basis of both Sylvia's writing and Anne's writing. Their sytles and subjects are revealed in this in a way that any and all fans would adore.
Anne Sexton is very poetic, I'd venture to say that in some stages of her career she was even more so than Plath.
-Shirley- -
Wow. I would kill to write as good as both her and Sylvia Plath did. There's just something beautiful about this,in a dark way...but just everything about this, like the way the words fit together and everything is perfect to me.
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From guest Breegan (contact)
Yes. Though Anne Sexton's imagery might not describe beautiful scenes, it is regardless beautiful in it's grotesque qualities. Oh, and dear slyvia plath. I only had to read one poem from these two to fall head over heels in love with them. -
Anne Sexton
From guest Michelle (contact)
I agree, both were geniuses! Sexton is an amazing poet, with the most original imageries and analagies! Even though some of her work may be hard to relate to, considering she was in such a dark place, I am always in awe of how she describes pain. -
I disagree with that above comment. Sexton is very poetic. It's just a different genre, but I love her. And this is my favourite poem of hers. I guess I'm biased though, given that I love Plath so much and that this is about her. Both were geniuses.
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Anne Sexton doesn't seem to be very poetic, but this was interesting bacause it was about Sylvia Plath.
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