These half-rhymed words conclude the poem and once more set the poet’s hand as separate from her. âCutâ suggests an injury that is communicated to the readers through âSylviaâs Death.â Both Plath and Sexton talk in their poems about middle-class, white female dissatisfaction and boredom as this derive in the fifties from a much broader gender-defined, socio-cultural and political conformity. It is “A celebration”. The first of these is a “hinge”. Ads are what helps us bring you premium content! Looked at this way, the poem revels in contrast. The Question and Answer section for Sylvia Plath: Poems is a great After all, the red flow of blood evokes the feminine body, as well as an outpouring of creativity. This question is best answered in GradeSaver's analysis for the poem. She considers this to be a celebration. The poem can also be understood as a feminist expression. Plath continues to address her hand as if it is not her own. I have taken a pill to kill. The final lines reference the act of trepanning in which a hole is drilled in one’s head in order to relieve pressure and as a very violent and unnecessary “cure” for a variety of remedies. But, with analysis they all make sense. These lines are less clear, but they continue the feeling of alienation that has spanned the entire poem. What's your thoughts? The hard “d” syllable contributes to the solidity of the line, as does the use of end-punctuation. Subscribe to our mailing list and get new poetry analysis updates straight to your inbox. So she decided to make fun of all current and old society, and the drama of life, because she was being so dramatic about her thumb... She was genius enough to point out a fault just be over-dramaticizing her cut thumb. The login page will open in a new tab. Some of the best include the fizzing pink of her thumb and its blood, the “turkey wattle” she uses to compare the dripping blood to, and that of the darkening and tarnishing bandage. Traditionally, the word “image” is related to visual sights, things that a reader can imagine seeing, but imagery is much more than that. This theme resonates with the common theme in her poetry of a separation between body and mind. What a thrill – Finally, the poem can be understood as a political allusion to the Cuban Missile Crisis and other contemporary political dramas. The tone is direct as the speaker addresses her injury and everything it reminds her of. ... Will created Poem Analysis back in 2015 and has a team of the best poetry experts helping him analyse poems from the past and present. They allude to larger personal and mental problems with phrases like “I have taken a pill” and “I am ill”. Subscribe to our mailing list to get the latest and greatest poetry updates. Earlier poems in her oeuvre, such as "Cut" and "Kindness," spoke of bright blood gushing and flowing, but "Contusion" suggests a lack of blood â the body is all "washed out," and is pallid, lifeless. The Cut â Sylvia Plath . But, similes always use “like” or “as” between the two things being juxtaposed. Emma graduated from East Carolina University with a BA in English, minor in Creative Writing, BFA in Fine Art, and BA in Art Histories. Horror in the poetry of Sylvia Plath; A Herr-story: âLady Lazarusâ and Her Rise from the Ash; Sylvia Plath's "Daddy": A Cry for Help About âCutâ First published in her posthumous volume Ariel, âCutâ is often considered one of Plathâs greatest poems. The body in "Cut" is very much alive and engaged, and the imagery reflects this vivacity - Plath uses words like "red plush," "pink fizz," "stain," "Redcoats," and "pulp". The top of its head has come right off. The first, metaphor, is a comparison between two unlike things that does not use “like” or “as” is also present in the text. By Dr Oliver Tearle âWordsâ was one of the last poems Sylvia Plath wrote before her tragic suicide in February 1963. It was included in Ariel. She continues to consider colors and decides that it looks like a little pilgrim that’s been scalped by an “Indian”. The wound's "pulp" has been silenced, like a "Trepanned veteran" (a veteran whose skull has been wounded or operated on) and a "dirty girl.". These quatrains do not follow a specific rhyme scheme or metrical pattern, this is a technique known as free verse.. Similarly, the mention of trepanning - early brain surgery - could be understood as an insult at his intelligence. You can read Plathâs poem âWordsâ here before proceeding to our analysis below. The top quite gone The use of the word “dead” in the third line is shocking. Tulips, written in 1961, is a free verse poem that deals with Sylvia Plath's state of being whilst in hospital for an appendectomy.She initially named it Sickroom Tulips in Hospital but shortened the title later on.. From the cut, the blood rolls out like a million little soldiers; they are like the "redcoats" from the Revolutionary War. The blood continues to flow despite the pressure she employs, and her emotions follow suit, as she remains profuse in description. The next metaphor she uses to describe her thumb is that of “Redcoats” running out of a gap. These quatrains do not follow a specific rhyme scheme or metrical pattern, this is a technique known as free verse.. Plath compares her thumb to a scalped pilgrim, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, a dirty girl, a stump, and a trepanned veteran. She calls him a “homunculus” or a little man, something she’d done before in other writings. She does not know whose side they are on, and laments to her "homunculus" (a little man) that she is ill. She took a painkiller, hoping to get rid of the "papery feeling," but feels sad about it. Although Sylvia Plath was succeeding poetically, she was still deeply unhappy. She tried to kill herself a number of times throughout the early 60s, and in February of 1963, she succeeded. The sense seems to be that death has finally claimed Plath, and there is nothing exciting or vivid about it. These juxtaposed images are powerful and strange. In one letter, she referred to Ted as a "little man," which is precisely what a homunculus is. These lines address her injury on the surface, but they are deeper than that. Historical Allusions Mostly about America's History "Little pilgrim" - Discovering America "Pink fizz" - Popular drink "Redcoats" - British Soldiers (American Revolution) "Kamikaze man" - Suicide Bomber (WWII) "Ku Klux Klan" - Racism (Civil War) "Babushka" - Russian Doll This is used to speak on the drips of blood that are running down her hand onto the carpet. Her excitable tone begins immediately - she says it is a "thrill" that the top of her thumb is almost gone except for a hinge of skin, which flaps like a "hat." For example, in the second stanza where the speaker describes the skin hanging off her thumb: “Of skin, / A flap like a hat”. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Sylvia Plath's poetry. The poem displays the self-destructive behaviour which was a probable contributor to her The fourth stanza depicts Plath as stepping on the blood on the carpet, likely making it a permanent stain. Metaphors can be seen throughout as the speaker addresses her thumb and everything it makes her think of. "Cut" was dedicated to Susan O'Neill Roe, Plath's nurse/nanny and a close friend during the period of her single motherhood. She took her pills in an attempt to fend off the pain, which is really described as a thin “Papery feeling,” as if one could blow away. Ted Hughes's affair with Assia Wevill had just become public, and Plath was utterly distraught. At the halfway point of ‘Cut’ Plath reasserts the thrilling nature of this accident. Additionally, they are made of paper. Intervention is unable to heal her cut. I honestly think she cut her thumb, and was pissed about it. In order to understand this poem completely one needs to understand a bit about her. This is perhaps the most important technique at work in ‘Cut’. In addition to the lake and boat, there are âcut-paper people.â The fact that they too are described as black makes them a part of the scene. "Sylvia Plath: Poems “Cut” Summary and Analysis". Sylvia Plath: Poems essays are academic essays for citation. (Plath would kill herself on 11 February 1963, in a London apartment she had decided to rent because W. B. Yeats had once lived there; âWordsâ was written on 1 February.) Sylvia Plath: Poems essays are academic essays for citation. In the sixth stanza, some readers have taken as a reference to Ted Hughes, Plath’s ex-husband who had recently been publicly revealed as cheating on her. All of the American images involve a period of war or conflict as well. The first thing readers of Sylvia Plathâs âCutâ will notice is the ironic language used to describe what seems to be an accidental slip of the protagonistâs knife while she is cutting onionsâshe characterizes the event as âa thrillâ (line 1) and a âcelebrationâ (line 17), likening her damaged thumb to a champagne bottle and the trail of blood to a red carpet. Critics think it played an important role as a precursor to Plath's novel The Bell Jar, as both speaker and protagonist ⦠She is possibly fantasizing about attacking him. The unceasing flow of blood - and the ambivalent glee that the speaker explores - could be a response to a world progressively more consumed by potential destruction, and unsure how to process it. In all these images, she is seeing the thumb as something apart from her, something she observes rather than experiences. Precisely what a thrill – My thumb instead of an onion divorce from Hughes. 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