Did you know that Sylvia's son Nicholas Hughes killed himself last year, and that Ted Hughes' second wife (for whom he left Sylvia, triggering her own suicide), killed herself and her young daughter six years after Sylvia? What a tragic family tree.
I'll admit it, I'm one of those girls who has read a lot of Plath. I've read The Bell Jar, I have her complete collection of poetry-did you know she even wrote a children's book?! I have "Daddy" memorized, or at least did at one time.
"Ariel" has always intrigued and somewhat perplexed me. The poem seems to center around the moment when "White Godiva-I unpeel"-this symbolic stripping down-stripping of self, or of everything blocking and hiding that self?
Χαίρετε, νικῶμεν
11 years ago
I'm a Plath-ophile too--I'll have to sit on my tongue tonight so I don't interrupt with all sort of side facts.
ReplyDeleteThe family is totally tragic. I knew about Hughes's second wife and Nicolas. Plath's daughter is also an aspiring poet. I haven't read her work yet, but I'll have to give it a peek one of these days.