PARALYTIC & EDGEPutting an understanding to the evolution of Plath’s poetry

before her suicide

A GENERAL UNDERSTANDING…

After the completion of the “Ariel” manuscript in November of 1962, Plath went on writing poetry, and her style began to evolve once more. 

Beginning in December of 1962, the transition to a new voice began. 

A GENERAL UNDERSTANDING… The transformation was complete by January 28,

1963, with the composition of “Child.”  Over the subsequent nine days Plath would compose a

total of nine poems in the final voice, writing her last poem, “Edge,” on February 5, six days before her death by suicide. 

These poems, “Child,” “Paralytic,” “Gigolo,” “Mystic,” “Kindness,” “Words,” “Balloons,” and “Edge,” all sport single-word titles with relatively clipped lines compared to her earlier work.  “Edge,” is perhaps the best example of this style.

PARALYTIC Paralytic focuses on a persona who patiently awaits

her death and charts her journey towards it in a seemingly positive manner. Although the poem centralizes on a rather morbid issue, it is

conveyed in a way that suggests the persona would let go of all worldly desires that has brought her down entering a realm whereby she would feel more liberated. 

The disintegration of self is also reflected in this poem. The persona is being described in disparate body parts, “lips,

eyes, nose, ears” and “no fingers to grip, no tongue..” indicating the self as separate therefore subverting the idea of a unified identity.

By doing so, the persona dehumanizes and detaching herself from the society who has these forms intact and this therefore makes them human unlike the persona. 

IMAGERY IN PARALYTIC The state of voicelessness if apparent in the mouth

images – as seen in her other works, but it manifests differently within this poem. The persona has “no tongue” and her “mind (is) a rock”

indicating the incapacity for her to process her thoughts and emotions therefore defining her being as in a form of void and absence.

The persona then shows her desire towards death. This is paralleled with Plath’s usual writing style and can be

seen similarly in “Lady Lazarus”, where she displays an exceptionally special attraction towards death as “dying” has been evaluated as a form of “art”. The persona ends off with “ask[ing] nothing of life”.

There are many instances which show the persona’s attraction towards death – no just in the last stanza!

IMAGERY IN PARALYTIC At the last stanza, Plath uses two disparate images

“claw” representing an abrupt and distorting image compared to “magnolia” flowers which is seen as romantic and beautiful. When the “magnolia” flowers bloom, it is a harbinger of spring.

Therefore, the image of “magnolia” brings about the idea of hope and warmness.

By putting two incongruent images together, apparently Plath is trying to present something raw, almost dangerous in the middle of some splendid beauty. The “magnolia”, ironically, is very gentle and romantic; however, Plath gives a negative connotation to it by saying that something so beautiful is also very dangerous – pointing to where it can be “drunk on its own scents”. The persona is therefore “drunk” and unable to control herself due

to her own doings.

EDGE

“Edge” exemplifies the voice that now bears its name in two principle ways.  First, its pattern of line breaks is erratic and jolting.  Plath was always one to start a new line in the middle of a sentence; however, the new poems take this to a level not previously seen in her work. 

In fact, in several cases, single clauses are spread across as many as three different stanzas, as at the beginning of “Edge:”  “Her dead//Body wears the smile of accomplishment, /the illusion of a

Greek necessity//Flows in the scrolls of her toga.” 

METAPHOR IN EDGE

By my count there are no less than six instances of indirect comparison between various figures within the twenty lines of the poem. All of these comparisons connect to the following images/ideas: Greek Statue Motherhood Children Creativity

ASSESSING THE LATER WORKS… These poems are about the accomplishment of a long

journey. It would be presumptuous to claim to know for certain which journey Plath is referring to.  Saying she foresaw her suicide and was saying that her life

was done is an easy out, and probably not correct.  These poems could as easily the cap placed on the end of

“Ariel,” marking the end of the year’s transformation and furious composition Plath had just finished. 

It could also have something to say about closing the final chapter on her marriage to the poet Ted Hughes in the preceding weeks. 

At any rate, Plath stopped for a breath on her furious journey, and she never came back up.

CONNECTIONS: PARALYTIC & EDGE

Motif of entrapment Body imagery Motherhood

The language of void used aligns her with nothingness, an almost empty vessel which is reflected in many of Plath’s poems particularly, and the poems that has to do with motherhood.

The persona feels pressurized with the need to conform to the society.  This sense of entrapment, however, serves to empower the

persona (in Paralytic) as she seeks enlightenment at the second last stanza of the poem likening her “smile” to a “Buddha” liberating herself from “wants, desire” that has only served as shackles that torment her throughout her living life.

RESOURCES

Merrywell, Jack. Poetry Analysis: Edge, by Sylvia Plath. Helium. April 17, 2012. Web. August 2012. http://www.helium.com/items/2315746-sylvia-plath-edge

Paralytic’s analysis (Plath). Wordpress.com. 5 April 2009. Web. 26 August 2012. http://bloodjet.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/paralytics-analysis-plath/trackback/