In today's class, we talked about how "good literature" can have this wonderful ability to defy the erosion of time and to stay forever young and awe-inspiring years after it's production. Reading Sylvia Plath's poem such as Daddy gives us such kind of feeling. Her poetry, with its emotional intensity and macaber savageness, can still give us the shudders today. Below is an audio clip of Plath's interview. Listen carefully. In this interview, she mentioned Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton, whose "confessional poetry" inspired and excited her. Why? What kind of subject she felt drawn to? What does she mean when she talked about the "dangerousness of gentility" in England? What's the difference between being an American poet and an English poet? Write down anything that you feel interesting or inspiring after listening to this sound clip. Pay attention to Plath's commanding and yet beautiful voice.
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Plath was interested in Sexton’s poetry. Sexton once wrote a poem about her own experience of being a mother having a nervous breakdown, which Plath found extremely emotional.
Plath was drawn by a subject based on a kind of psychological depth, which she thought as new and exciting.
As for “dangerousness of gentility”, I assume Plath was trying to say that gentility in England is some kind of “stranglehold”, which Plath mentioned, on freedom. Since most British are paying attention to tidiness and neatness, it would be dangerous for others who don’t want to follow the gentility rules and intend to do things freely.
I suppose the main difference between an American poet and an English poet is based on their attention towards criticism. English poets often carry risks of being criticized by publishing works people might not enjoy while American poets just simply ignore what comes to them. English poets are often afraid of writing or publishing a single poem while American poets start reading many different poets’ works to develop their own writing.
Sylvia Plath had started writing poems when she was so little.
At first she wrote about some beautiful subjects such as birds, spring, fall, the first snowfall, and all those things of nature.
But then, she got inspired by Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton. They wrote peculiar and taboo themes.
Sylvia thought their poems had this psychological depth that was an encouraging breakthrough.
Mayby it's because Sylvia herself had some uncomfortable mental experiences, these subjects interested her more. I believe that a terrifying father and a husband who's a womanizer are enough elements to form a devastating life.
However, when she talked about how important personal experiences are, I felt a strong and sudden punch on my head.
That's right! We should control and manipulate those terrible experiences with the intelligent and imformed mind instead of continuing being tortured by those macabre memories.
I have finished listening to the tape. In this interview, Sylvia Plath says that she started from young peoms when she began writing poetry,also she mentioned Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton, both of them are exited her, they have a kind of emotional and psycological depth that Sylvia Plath thinks that is queit new and queit exciting.
Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell write about their experiences, their poems are wonderfully craftiness.
Sylvia Plath find herself being more fascinated by history, also she read a lot of historical, she is interesting in history of war and battle.
After listened to this tape, I realize that personal expirence
is quiet useful in poems.
The main idea of the video tape is talking about how Sylvia Plath's writing style changed in different period of time.
Her first style are elements that is connected to the mother nature as she said in the video.
And then she was influenced by Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton, which makes she think she could ddiscover the elements of taboo or psychological things.
And after that, as what she said, she like historical themes better, especially war and battles, which may because of her backgroud of the world war one generation.
At the end of the video, the male voice asked her did she write her poem from her experience or manipulate from books, she tells us the importance of personal experience in her point of view.
In this sound clip, Sylvia Plath mentioned that she started her writing work when she was quiet small. First she was interesting in natural things such as beautiful scenery or little bird. She wrote natural subject when she was a little girl. In her other period, she was inspired by confessional poetry and the poet such as Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton. Confessional poetry is a theme which attracted Sylvia a lot and it is about own experience and private things. In my opinion, Sylvia had some traumatic experience that made she combine her life to her poem.
In other side, I want to talk about that the American poet and English poet, talk about their difference. Sylvia was born in America but her life was almost in England. She talked about that the criticism tension is different in this two countries. American poet developed their own writing but English poet was more afraid about criticizing by publishing work and people.
When I was listening this sound clip, I am surprised that Sylvia Plath was also fascinating by history. Her poet not only expresses emotional experience but also shows her broad knowledge and traumatic life.
At the beginning of the interview, Sylvia Plath told that when she started to writing the first subject come form her mind is the natural, such as bird, spring or fall. But latter, she was inspired by Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton. Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton are both famous for confessional poetry which emphasizes the information about details of the poet’s personal life, such as illness, sexuality or the emotional experience. Inspired by this kind of style, Sylvia Plath was fascinated by the private taboo subject.
I think the “dangerousness of gentility” means that poet in England were demanded to write with beautiful and formal words but it may be a constraint for creating new things.
I think Sylvia Plath is full of ideas about poetry and has great talent for writing. After reading her poetries, I can not help but marveling for her perfect ability of writing.
I am surprised that Sylvia Plath in this interview answers the question so quickly. Her reaction is so fast and ingenious. She starts write poem when she is a little girl, in that time, she writes nature things like bees, spring…so forth. And then she inspired by Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton. She starts to write some pungent poems, shows everyone her emotions. She is also likes history, often reads them and studies them.
English poem is different from American poem. English poem is afraid to critic. On the other hand, American poem likes to judge some things. At the end Sylvia Plath mentions that personal experience is so important. So everyone should try new things more harder.
When Sylvia Plath started writing poetry, nature was her first object. After some years, she grew up into a woman whom very intense things fascinated. For example, she was intoxicated with that confessional poetry such as Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton produced. She thought that poetry was intense and represented as a strong, personal, emotional feeling. She also considered the personal poetries were partly taboo that made her exciting.
I think that Sylvia Plath wanted to convey there was much mercurial danger under the seemingly peaceful and silent surface. The neatness and wonderful tidiness restricted the gentility in England. Due to that, Sylvia Plath could not experience the author’s strong feeling. Instead, she just touched rhetoric only.
As Sylvia Plath mentioned, when she was at Cambridge and wrote some poetries, young women would come up to her to criticize her works. At that time, woman just only stayed at home and could not wrote down some fictions or poetries. However, reading poetries was where she began. It was not a big deal. By the way, she agreed English literature is a culture in middle class.
I think it's quite astonishing that Sylvia started to write poetry since she was just a little girl and even published her work.
When she first started writing poetry,she wrote about the nature like birds,bees,spring,fall,those kind of subjects. She thinks that nature is something that a person can write about when having no interior experiences.
She mentioned that the poetry of Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton. For Robert Lowell,she thinks that his poetry about the experiences in the mental hospital interests her very much. For Anne Sexton, she thinks that Anne Sexton wrote about the experiences as a mother and as a mother who has a nervous breakdown.
She found herself being more and more fasinated by history,and reading about history. She's also very interested in battles and wars.
She thinks that personal experiences are important and also the emotion,which we can find it in her poem Daddy. I think she used her own experiences and the way she expressed her emotion in the poem really amazed me.
I have finished listening to the tape. In this interview, Sylvia Plath says that she started from young peoms when she began writing poetry,also she mentioned Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton, both of them are exited her, they have a kind of emotional and psycological depth that Sylvia Plath thinks that is queit new and queit exciting.
Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell write about their experiences, their poems are wonderfully craftiness.
Sylvia Plath find herself being more fascinated by history, also she read a lot of historical, she is interesting in history of war and battle.
After listened to this tape, I realize that personal expirence
is quiet useful in poems.
To begin with, Sylvia Plath mentioned in the interview that she likes nursery rhymes. It interests me because some of her poems sound like nursery rhymes, repeating and cooing. It is also really interesting to learn about what kind of person Sylvia Plath is. She is drawn to themes about personal emotional experiences, taboo subjects, and works of literature with psychological depth. I am also interested in knowing that she is fascinated by history, such as Napoleon and wars. Another thing that interests me is that she considers herself as an old fashioned American, about 50 years behind. Yet, there are some pop elements in her poem. Last, she used the phrase “as I age” in the interview. This interests me because she is so young!
Sylvia started to write poems not because she wanted to create something special. Her only reason to begin writing poems is that she liked nursery rhymes so much that she would like to produce poems of the same form. And her early contents of poems were about birds, bees, spring, fall, and the nature.
As a representative of the “confessional poets,” Sylvia was strongly impressed and influenced by Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton. She mentioned that poems concerning “taboo,” which Sylvia thought to be a part of American culture, establish intense breakthroughs and emotional as well as psychological depth, such as one of Anne’s poem depicted the breakdown, the extreme emotion as a young woman being a mother and Lowell’s special memories of his serious experience in mental hospital.
Sylvia said that she admired classic poems, there were few contemporary poets she admired, and that was the reason why she stayed in England for fifteen years. However, she also mentioned the “dangerousness of gentility.” Gentile forms of poems set up a stranglehold that would likely limit British poets in the category of wonderful tidiness and neatness.
As we know, Sylvia Plath started writing when she was little. What's more, she even published her work.
At the beginning, she wrote potery about nature. Affected by Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton, she started to write the taboo themes.
Also, she find herself interested in history. She is fascinated in war and battle.
What interested me most is she said that she use her personal experiences to write poems. I agree with what she said. A good poem should be based on the poet's experiences. In that way, the poem can touched readers' mind.
At the beginning of the interview, Sylvia mentioned that she wrote subjects about nature, such as bird or fall when she began to write poems. And then she was affected by Robert Lowell’s and Anne Sexton’s writing direction. Robert Lowell wrote something about serious, personal and emotional experience. Sylvia thought that these peculiar and private subjects are really important to a poet.
Besides, Sylvia also suggested “Dangerousness of gentility” in this interview. I think what she talked about was those gentilities emphasized a lot of things of surface. Moreover, gentilities also focus on the formal and gorgeous style. It might restrain the ability and imagination and creation to a poet.
I think Sylvia was an impressing poet and she had many thinking about poem. Poem should be wrote on relevant, shock or mirror-look track
Sylvia Plath mentioned that “this kind of confessional poetry is intensely serious and very personal experiences which she felt been pubic taboo……”
However, in my opinion, she adopt this way to construct her poem to express her own experience is quit excited and a little too exaggerate. On the one hand, the confessional text is just like the story “The Cast of Amontillado” we already read in the last semester. When I read her poem, the feeling is just like I am reading her diary, and I feel a little of guilty but I can’t help to stop. On the other hand, I can not figure out is she is telling a truth or the poem she wrote is just to effect some of the dark aspect she want to show, and it is quit struggle to believe it or not.
Sylvia began to write when she was very small and she wrote nature at first, such as birds, bees, or seasons. A theme that someone who didn't have any internal experiences can write.
Sylvia said she likes to write America themes which attract her. She mentioned that Robert Lowell's confessional poetry inspired and excited her. Especially, "Life studies" enter the break through into very serious and personal emotional experiences which she thinks are taboos. Also, she mentioned Anne Sexton whose poets are professional and have a mental deep of emotion. She thinks the poets are interesting.
About the "dangerous of gentility" in England, a critic argued that it's very pertinent and troth. But Sylvia doesn't think so, she think gentility has a discourageable strength, and maybe it's more dangerous than showing on the surface.
In America, people have freedom to comment what they think, so they can dare to write the poems. In England, they emphasize on the practical criticism.
Sylvia started writing poems since she was a child she usually wrote poems about natural, such as birds, bees, fall, the first snowfall ; but later, when she got older she was inspired by Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton. She thought that the "confessional poetry" about their personal life experience. For example, when Anne became a mother she had a nervous breakdown, also had a serious feeling and her poems were wonderfully fill with emotional and psychological depth which Sylvia thought that was quite new and very interesting. So she had some poetry which are full of emotional feelings like "Daddy".
When they are talking about "dangerousness of gentility" in England she means that people there are so tidy and neat of their surface but I guess for her it's just like stranglehold that limits her feelings.
From the interview I understand that the personal experience is very important and when we have more experience we can purify our writings.
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