1. Sylvia Plath
By: Savanna Warren

2. Background *Born in Boston on October 27, 1932
*Depressed throughout her life
*Attempted suicide twice
*First Published at age 8
*Lived back and forth in the US and England

3. Popular Work Daddy The Colossus Among the Narcissi
For a Fatherless Son
Fever 103
Cinderella
Ariel
Cut
A Birthday Present
Candles
Contusion
Among the Narcissi
Everlasting Monday
Insomniac
Childless Woman
Kindness
Dirge For a Joker
Heavy Woman
The Glutton
Facelift
All the Dead Dears

4. Thesis
Her familial relations, mental health, and female stereotype roles all influenced the dark, ominous tone surrounding her poetry.

5. Explications
What a thrill --- My thumb instead of an onion. The top quite gone Except for a sort of a hinge Of skin, A flap like a hat, Dead white. Then that red plush. Little pilgrim, The Indian's axed your scalp. Your turkey wattle Carpet rolls Straight from the heart. I step on it, Clutching my bottle Of pink fizz. A celebration, this is. Out of a gap A million soldiers run, Redcoats, every one.
Whose side are they on? O my Homunculus, I am ill. I have taken a pill to kill The thin Papery feeling. Saboteur, Kamikaze man --- The stain on your Gauze Ku Klux Klan Babushka Darkens and tarnishes and when The balled Pulp of your heart Confronts its small Mill of silence How you jump --- Trepanned veteran, Dirty girl, Thumb stump.

6. Explications Title Cut
I think that she may be comparing her feelings and emotions to an open wound.
Paraphrase
When cutting an onion she misses and cuts off the tip of her thumb. Then she goes into the gore of history and how that all connects with pain. She states how people celebrate the destruction of others, such as the KKK, soldiers in war, indians defending from the invading party.
Speaker
The speaker is Sylvia Plath herself.
Figurative Language
Simile- lines 3-6 “The top quite gone,/Except for a sort of a hinge/Of skin,/A flap like a hat,”
Metaphor- lines “The stain on your/Gauze Ku Klux Klan”
Attitude
She is disgusted at how cruel and brutal this society has become.
Shifts
Between the second and third stanza, she shifts from talking about her wound to the cruelty of the human race/human nature.
Title
The title means more of how society is wounded, our initial reaction is violence to defend ourselves.
Theme
The subject of this poem is human nature. Our immediate reaction to any sort of discomfort is to lash out in a violent act in an effort to reconcile the situation.

7. Explications
Stasis in darkness. Then the substanceless blue Pour of tor and distances. God's lioness, How one we grow, Pivot of heels and knees!--The furrow Splits and passes, sister to The brown arc Of the neck I cannot catch, Nigger-eye Berries cast dark Hooks---- Black sweet blood mouthfuls, Shadows. Something else Hauls me through air---- Thighs, hair; Flakes from my heels. White Godiva, I unpeel---- Dead hands, dead stringencies. And now I Foam to wheat, a glitter of seas. The child's cry Melts in the wall. And I Am the arrow, The dew that flies, Suicidal, at one with the drive Into the red Eye, the cauldron of morning.

8. Explications Title Ariel
This poem might be about a girl who doesn’t quite fit in right.
Paraphrase
She is talking about the atrocity of the ocean. There are creatures there that tear into others for a feast. Everything is dark and encompassed with death. The death of each creature in the sea in turn becomes the stark beauty that we all see with admiring eyes.
Speaker
A fish in the sea being caught by fisherman out boating.
Figurative Language
Imagery- line 13 “Black sweet blood mouthfuls”
Personification- lines “The child’s cry/Melts in the wall”
Attitude
Terrified, hopeless, desperate
Shifts
The second stanza transitions from just being a fish of the ocean to the victim of fisherman.
Title
The title of this poem is to kind of give us a look through the eyes of sea creatures.
Theme
The subject is men brutally fishing and it shows just how insensitive humans are. How they don’t care for anything that doesn’t affect them. They do what they please to satisfy their present desires without giving any thought to consequences to anyone or anything else.

9. Explication
This is a dark house, very big. I made it myself, Cell by cell from a quiet corner, Chewing at the grey paper, Oozing the glue drops, Whistling, wiggling my ears, Thinking of something else. It has so many cellars, Such eelish delvings! U an round as an owl, I see by my own light. Any day I may litter puppies Or mother a horse. My belly moves. I must make more maps. These marrowy tunnels! Moley-handed, I eat my way. All-mouth licks up the bushes And the pots of meat. He lives in an old well, A stoney hole. He's to blame. He's a fat sort. Pebble smells, turnipy chambers. Small nostrils are breathing. Little humble loves! Footlings, boneless as noses, It is warm and tolerable In the bowel of the root. Here's a cuddly mother.

10. Explication Title Dark House
This poem might be about a person wandering through an old dark house without any source of light/power.
Paraphrase
A woman is about to give birth to an unknown creature. She has built a cellar of sorts to give birth and mother the yet-to-be-determined child. It’s dark, cold, and lonely. A small, fat creature is to blame for impregnating her with this mystery brute. He lives in an old well somewhere.
Speaker
A woman with the unfortunate luck to be victim to an unknown demon.
Figurative Language
Simile- line 25 “boneless as noses”
Imagery- line 16 “Moley-handed, I eat my way”
Attitude
She is bitter toward the man for impregnating her with this mystery. But she is also protective of her fetus(es) and wants to be prepared for their arrival.
Shifts
In the third stanza she shifts from the subject of herself to one of the offender (aka the man who took her victim)
Title
This is indicating that the house is a dark protective shelter; a place of refuge.
Theme
The subject being the house and why she is there. You have to protect your own, you may not understand the situation but you need to do what you know to be right. The results may seem dreary, unattainable, or unclear however you must stick to what you know to be moral.

11. Modeled Poem Final Step A mouth full of pills, A rope tied in knots.
A blade to the throat
A bath filled to the top.
A very tall ledge,
A press on the trigger.
One swallow, one drop,
One flick of the wrist.
One slow breath in and a leap of faith.
The smallest of pressures
And all the pain of life will be gone forever.