'Tulips' by Sylvia Plath
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The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.
Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in
I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly
As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands.
I am nobody; I have nothing to do with explosions.
I have given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses
And my history to the anaesthetist and my body to surgeons.
They have propped my head between the pillow and the sheet-cuff
Like an eye between two white lids that will not shut.
Stupid pupil, it has to take everything in.
The nurses pass and pass, they are no trouble,
They pass the way gulls pass inland in their white caps,
Doing things with their hands, one just the same as another,
So it is impossible to tell how many there are.
My body is a pebble to them, they tend it as water
Tends to the pebbles it must run over, smoothing them gently.
They bring me numbness in their bright needles, they bring me sleep.
Now I have lost myself I am sick of baggage ----
My patent leather overnight case like a black pillbox,
My husband and child smiling out of the family photo;
Their smiles catch onto my skin, little smiling hooks.
I have let things slip, a thirty-year-old cargo boat
Stubbornly hanging on to my name and address.
They have swabbed me clear of my loving associations.
Scared and bare on the green plastic-pillowed trolley
I watched my teaset, my bureaus of linen, my books
Sink out of sight, and the water went over my head.
I am a nun now, I have never been so pure.
I didn't want any flowers, I only wanted
To lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty.
How free it is, you have no idea how free ----
The peacefulness is so big it dazes you,
And it asks nothing, a name tag, a few trinkets.
It is what the dead close on, finally; I imagine them
Shutting their mouths on it, like a Communion tablet.
The tulips are too red in the first place, they hurt me.
Even through the gift paper I could hear them breathe
Lightly, through their white swaddlings, like an awful baby.
Their redness talks to my wound, it corresponds.
They are subtle: they seem to float, though they weigh me down,
Upsetting me with their sudden tongues and their colour,
A dozen red lead sinkers round my neck.
Nobody watched me before, now I am watched.
The tulips turn to me, and the window behind me
Where once a day the light slowly widens and slowly thins,
And I see myself, flat, ridiculous, a cut-paper shadow
Between the eye of the sun and the eyes of the tulips,
And I hve no face, I have wanted to efface myself.
The vivid tulips eat my oxygen.
Before they came the air was calm enough,
Coming and going, breath by breath, without any fuss.
Then the tulips filled it up like a loud noise.
Now the air snags and eddies round them the way a river
Snags and eddies round a sunken rust-red engine.
They concentrate my attention, that was happy
Playing and resting without committing itself.
The walls, also, seem to be warming themselves.
The tulips should be behind bars like dangerous animals;
They are opening like the mouth of some great African cat,
And I am aware of my heart: it opens and closes
Its bowl of red blooms out of sheer love of me.
The water I taste is warm and salt, like the sea,
And comes from a country far away as health.
Editor 1 Interpretation
Tulips by Sylvia Plath
Wow, just wow! This poem really hits you in the gut. Sylvia Plath, the legendary poet, never fails to amaze with her profound and haunting work. Tulips is a perfect example of the kind of emotional intensity and depth that she was known for.
In this poem, Plath takes the image of tulips and uses it to explore themes like identity, freedom, and the struggle to overcome one's own inner demons. The poem is full of vivid and sensory language that really brings the tulips to life, but it's also a deeply introspective and personal piece that speaks to the human experience on a universal level.
Form and Structure
Let's start by talking about the form and structure of the poem. Tulips is a free verse poem, which means that it doesn't follow any strict rhyme or meter. Instead, Plath uses a variety of poetic techniques to create a sense of rhythm and flow.
One of the most striking things about the poem is its use of enjambment. Enjambment is when a line of poetry continues onto the next line without punctuation, and Tulips is full of it. This creates a sense of urgency and momentum in the poem, as if the speaker is struggling to keep up with their own thoughts and emotions.
For example, take a look at the first three lines:
The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.
Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in.
I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly
Notice how the first line ends abruptly, and the second line starts with "Look" instead of a new sentence. This creates a sense of continuity between the two lines, as if the speaker is still in the middle of a thought. Then, the third line starts with "I am learning peacefulness," which is a complete sentence, but the line continues with "lying by myself quietly" without any punctuation. This creates a sense of connectedness between the speaker's physical state of lying down and their mental state of learning peacefulness.
Another technique that Plath uses in the poem is repetition. Throughout the poem, she repeats certain words and phrases to create a sense of unity and emphasis. For example, the word "red" appears several times in the poem, and the phrase "I am nobody" is repeated twice.
Themes and Motifs
Now let's dive into the themes and motifs of the poem. As I mentioned earlier, Tulips explores themes like identity, freedom, and the struggle to overcome one's own inner demons. The tulips themselves can be seen as a symbol of these themes.
On one hand, the tulips represent freedom and beauty. They are bright and colorful, and they stand out in the bleak winter landscape. The speaker describes them as "too excitable," as if they can't be contained by their surroundings. They are a symbol of life and vitality in the midst of death and stillness.
On the other hand, the tulips also represent a threat to the speaker's sense of self. The speaker is lying in a hospital bed, surrounded by the whiteness of the room and the "snowed-in" landscape outside. They are trying to find a sense of peace and detachment from the world, but the tulips keep intruding on their thoughts and emotions. The speaker says, "I have let things slip, a thirty-year-old cargo boat / stubbornly hanging on to my name and address." This suggests that the speaker is struggling to let go of their identity and their past, and the tulips are a reminder of the life that they are trying to escape.
Another motif in the poem is the idea of invisibility. The speaker says, "I am nobody; I have nothing to do with explosions." This suggests that they are trying to disappear, to become invisible and free from the expectations and pressures of the world. However, the tulips keep drawing attention to them, reminding them of their own existence and their own struggles.
Interpretation
So what does all of this mean? What is Plath trying to say with this poem? The beauty of poetry is that it's open to interpretation, and different readers will take away different meanings from the same text. Here are a few possible interpretations of Tulips:
The Struggle for Identity
One interpretation of the poem is that it's about the struggle to find and maintain a sense of identity in a world that is constantly changing and demanding. The speaker is lying in a hospital bed, surrounded by medical equipment and nurses. They are trying to find a sense of peace and detachment from the world, but the tulips keep intruding on their thoughts and emotions. The tulips represent the beauty and vitality of life, but they also represent a threat to the speaker's sense of self. The speaker is trying to let go of their identity and disappear, but the tulips keep drawing attention to them and reminding them of their own existence.
The Dual Nature of Beauty
Another interpretation of the poem is that it's about the dual nature of beauty. The tulips are beautiful and vibrant, but they also represent a danger to the speaker's sense of self. Beauty can be both alluring and threatening, and the poem explores the tension between these two aspects of beauty. The speaker is trying to find a sense of peace and detachment from the world, but the tulips keep intruding on their thoughts and emotions. This suggests that beauty can be both a source of comfort and a source of anxiety.
The Struggle to Overcome Inner Demons
A third interpretation of the poem is that it's about the struggle to overcome one's own inner demons. The speaker is lying in a hospital bed, surrounded by medical equipment and nurses. They are trying to find a sense of peace and detachment from the world, but the tulips keep intruding on their thoughts and emotions. The tulips represent the beauty and vitality of life, but they also represent a threat to the speaker's sense of self. The speaker is trying to let go of their identity and disappear, but the tulips keep drawing attention to them and reminding them of their own existence. This suggests that the speaker is struggling to overcome their own inner demons and find a sense of peace within themselves.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Tulips is a powerful and haunting poem that explores themes like identity, freedom, and the struggle to overcome one's own inner demons. Through the use of vivid and sensory language, Plath brings the tulips to life and creates a sense of urgency and momentum in the poem. The poem is open to interpretation, but it speaks to the human experience on a universal level. Whether you see it as a struggle for identity, an exploration of the dual nature of beauty, or a journey to overcome inner demons, Tulips is a masterpiece of modern poetry that will continue to inspire and captivate readers for generations to come.
Editor 2 Analysis and Explanation
Tulips by Sylvia Plath: A Masterpiece of Poetic Expression
Sylvia Plath is one of the most celebrated poets of the 20th century, known for her powerful and evocative works that explore themes of identity, mental illness, and the complexities of human emotion. Among her many iconic poems, Tulips stands out as a masterpiece of poetic expression, a haunting and deeply personal reflection on the nature of existence and the struggle to find meaning in a world that often seems indifferent to our desires and aspirations.
At its core, Tulips is a meditation on the experience of being alive, of inhabiting a body and a mind that are subject to the whims of fate and the ravages of time. The poem begins with a vivid description of a hospital room, where the speaker lies "in a white cave of forgetfulness" surrounded by the sterile trappings of modern medicine. The room is a symbol of the isolation and detachment that the speaker feels from the world around her, a place where she is cut off from the ordinary pleasures and pains of life.
But then something unexpected happens: a bouquet of tulips is brought into the room, and the speaker finds herself drawn to their vibrant colors and delicate petals. The tulips become a symbol of life and vitality, a reminder of the beauty and complexity of the natural world that exists beyond the walls of the hospital room. As the speaker gazes at the flowers, she begins to feel a sense of connection to the world outside, a sense of belonging that she has been missing since her illness began.
Yet even as the tulips offer a moment of respite from the speaker's isolation, they also serve as a reminder of the fragility and transience of life. The flowers are "too excitable, too high-strung" for the speaker's taste, a reminder that even the most beautiful and vibrant things in life are subject to decay and death. The tulips become a symbol of the speaker's own mortality, a reminder that her time on earth is limited and that she must make the most of the moments she has left.
Throughout the poem, Plath uses vivid and evocative language to capture the speaker's emotional state, creating a sense of intimacy and immediacy that draws the reader into the speaker's world. The hospital room is described as a "white cave of forgetfulness," a place where the speaker is cut off from the world and from herself. The tulips, by contrast, are described in lush and sensual terms, with their "redness" and "brightness" evoking a sense of vitality and energy that is missing from the speaker's life.
At the same time, Plath uses the tulips as a metaphor for the speaker's own inner turmoil, suggesting that the beauty and complexity of the natural world is mirrored in the complexity of the human psyche. The tulips are "too red in the first place, too deep," a reflection of the speaker's own intense emotions and desires. The flowers are also described as "too close," a reminder that the speaker is struggling to maintain a sense of distance and detachment from the world around her.
Ultimately, Tulips is a deeply moving and powerful poem that speaks to the universal human experience of grappling with the complexities of existence. Through her vivid and evocative language, Plath captures the sense of isolation and detachment that can come with illness and trauma, while also offering a glimmer of hope and connection through the beauty of the natural world. The poem is a testament to the power of poetry to capture the nuances of human emotion and experience, and to offer a glimpse into the depths of the human soul.
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