American Literature--------------------------Sylvia Plath
Image by [ r ♥ c e y t ♥ y ] {I br♥ke for bokeh} via Flickr “I am nude as chicken’s neck, does nobody love me?” Sylvia Plath was a poet who committed suicide in 1963 when she was 31 years old, leaving two children, and a body of brilliant work. She was at the height of her powers. There is some controversy as to whether the dramatic details of her death brought her to prominence, or whether her present acclaim is indeed due to her talent. There is a need in most of us to think of the poet as sacrificial victim; as if the poet's unhappy history added additional weight to the poetry itself, surrounding her work with an ambiance of religiosity. Plath satisfies this need, though she herself would have been distressed by an audience drawn to her by morbidity. Her work is incisive, bright, intelligent, not the least bit self-pitying in spite of its subject matter. She was full of life and had so much to look forward to that one can hardly believe, even though the evidence is i