Sylvia Plath Elm

‘Elm’ is a complex, even confusing poem. The poem takes the form of a dialogue between the speaker and an elm tree. Because both voices in the poem employ the personal pronoun ‘I’ many readers find it difficult to make sense of the narrative structure of Elm.

This is an intensely personal poem concerned with the theme of psychological suffering. There are two voices in the poem: that of the personified elm and the woman she addresses. At times it is very difficult to distinguish between these two voices because they seem to merge, with the suffering of the elm and that of the female persona reflective of each other.

The elm and the woman seem to share a common psychological identity and both can be identified by the poet herself. As in many of Plath’s poems, an inanimate object is personified. It is the voice of the elm that we hear in the opening lines of the poem.

Typical of much of Plath’s poetry, the poetic voice is clearly troubled. The image of the tap root journeying deep into the earth may symbolise the individual journeying deep into his/her psyche. The elm knows what it is like to hit a type of mental and emotional rock bottom, to plumb the depths of depression and despair. The elm knowledgably declares that it is this extreme state that the woman fears.

LOVE The elm asks if the sound of the wind blowing through its branches reminds the woman of the sound of the sea, or the “voice of nothing”, which was the cause of previous periods of insanity. It seems that the woman’s despair was caused by disappointment in love. Love is described as a “Shadow” that you cry after. The shadow image suggests that love is unreal. It may also suggest that love has a darkening effect on the woman’s life, “Listen, these are its hooves: it has gone off, like a horse.”

The taunting voice of the elm is coldly insensitive to the woman’s anguish. The world of the poem is bleak and harsh. At this point the elm becomes a galloping horse, telling the woman that it will continue to gallop away until her head is numb, “Till your head is a stone, your pillow a little turf.” The repeated long ‘o’ sound in “echoing, echoing” underscores the sense of loneliness and gloom that pervades the poem This phrase suggests that the woman’s anguish will not be short-lived because the sound of loneliness will continue echoing through her mind.

Stanzas 5-9 The tree continues to taunt the woman, “Or shall I bring you the sound of poisons?” This is possibly a reference to acid rain. The idea of a polluted environment is developed when the elm speaks of “Fruit (…) like arsenic. The imagery in these stanzas evokes a post-war nuclear landscape.

The metaphor of “a hand of wires” perfectly captures the elms parched, withered branches. Once again, this image has connotations of a nuclear disaster. (Or electric chair treatment she received)

Repetition conveys a sense of urgency, “I let her go, I let her go”. The barren moon is compared to a barren woman, “diminished and flat as after radical surgery”. The elm now declares that its sufferings are attributable to the woman, “How your bad dreams possess and endow me”. Since the elm’s fears have been transferred onto it by the woman, then clearly the fears expressed by the elm are also those of the woman.

From this point on the woman and the elm are speaking in the one voice. The “dark thing” within the speaker refers to the dark, destructive side of her nature, which she fears she can not control.

Conclusion The poem concludes with a nightmarish image of a “murderous” face in the elm’s branches. This terrifying face is the dark side of the speaker’s personality. The reference to “snaky acids” indicates that the speaker is aware of the highly dangerous nature of her own dark, despairing thoughts.

The closing like is particularly grim, “These are the isolate, slow faults / That kill, that kill, that kill.” The poet is terrified that her inherent weaknesses could literally kill her.