14 December 2013

A Final Look at Plath and Hughes

The title of the blog post is a little misleading, I think: I'm not quite done with these poets. But it's my last blog post, I've submitted the paper, and finished my presentation- the class is finished.  And compared to my "First Impressions" post on the two of them, my opinions of the two have definitely changed.

I've noticed that a lot of people in the class have taken a side in the Plath/Hughes debate- and I guess it's easy to, one way or another. They're both extremely relatable poets, whether it's Plath's confessionalism or Hughes's poorly-suppressed rage. For me, it's a little less extreme- I like them both. But there are a few things that push me a little closer to Hughes.

Crow is the biggest factor. Those poems were impressive- like, that they made an impression. I still stand by the claim that I made in the First Impressions post about Hughes- he writes these poems that make you feel something, but doesn't care to really help you decide what it is that he's making you feel. I end up feeling angry or anxious or just plain uncomfortable after reading his Crow poems, with no reason to really put a finger on- and I really admire that in his work.

And then there's the whole thing in Plath's writing that sets me on edge- namely, when she just sort of slips in those extremely racist remarks in otherwise really great poetry. I know the argument 'it was just how it was back then' could be used, but I really cannot get past reading her negative descriptions of herself she sometimes does by comparing herself to other races. There's that, and there's the Holocaust imagery that she uses (that I talked about in another blog post) that just makes me uncomfortable when I read them.

I'm not done reading her, though. I actually ended up buying Ariel halfway through the semester because I wanted the experience of reading those poems in order, the right way. And I'm definitely not done with Hughes- I need to be able to put my finger on what it is that the Crow makes me feel.

2 comments:

  1. I feel you on your reflection of your time with Plath this semester. I think that it is so hard to get pass the language she uses sometimes because it seems so completely irrelevant or unjustified- like the holocaust imagery. However, I spent so much time- so so so much time- with Plath this semester because I seriously had to know what she was even doing in any of her work. The best conclusion that I arrived at was her manipulation of language in ways that seem to belittle events like the holocaust are really just her way of projecting herself onto elements for greater expression. I believe that Plath needed to do this in order to fully express herself, and I think with that realization I have been able to essential look past the "sort of slips" that you were talking about. I do agree that I'm probably not finished with these two either. I feel like there's still so much that could be explored!

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  2. I am less worried by her holocaust references than by racist comments--like the "n... eyes" in "Ariel," for instance. Even at the time, the "N" word was clearly a hurtful, insulting word. I have tried to argue that Plath likes to push buttons by using words that were offensive or impolite and picking up on topics that were not talked about--like the holocaust in the early sixties (acknowledged but not talked about). Still, there are times when I think her use of racist terms was gratuitous--even phobic. Does she have a phobia about dark-skinned people? Sometimes I think so.

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