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Plath Sylvia 1932 - 1963 (31)

I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am, I am, I am.


QUOTES

Mirror

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful‚
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.


 Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. She was born in 1932 (27/10), in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, United States. Her father was a college professor, she showed from a very early age, a talent in creating lyrics; she was only 8 when she publishes a poem in a youthful magazine. At that time, her father who was an extreme conservative and according to some an exiled Nazi, died. Sylvia continued to write poems and to excel in school, but she also showed signs of manic depression; before finishing school she made her first suicide attempt, resulting to be closed to a psychiatric institution. She seemed to have recovered completely when she left the institution, she completed her studies with praise at Smith College and won a scholarship to the University of Cambridge. There she met the man who scarred her life, the English poet Ted Hughes, whom she married in 1956. They lived in the United States until 1959, she took on teaching at Smith College; when she became pregnant they decided to move to England. They lived for a while in London and then moved to North Tawton, a small town in Devon. In 1960, their first child was born. That same year Sylvia issued its first collection of poetry entitled "The Colossus". In January 1962 they had their second child, at a time that their marriage was facing great difficulties. She discovered his husband affair with a young poet and abandoned him, taking their children to London. The winter of 1962/1963 was very cold and she had serious economic problems except all others issues. On 5 February she wrote: "The woman is perfected. The dead body draped with a smile of fulfillment. The illusion of a Greek necessity flows in the folds of the robe. Exposed legs seem to say as we got here, enough.” On February 11, 1963, she organized her suicide with great rigor. It was night and her children asleep, the youngest was just 13 months. She opened their window to prevent any risk and left beside each cot a glass of milk and cookies. She knew that in the morning a nurse will visit them, she had left a note with directions to the entrance. She went into the kitchen and closed all cracks with wet towels to prevent leaks, then she turned on all gas switches and put her head in the oven. The attempt was successful. In her house, many manuscripts with poems were found and as she had not taken divorce from Hughes, he became the manager of her literary property, overshowing the publication of her poems. Many accused him that he destroyed part of her works because it contained details of their lives that weren’t flattering for him. In 1982 Sylvia Plath became the first poet to win the Pulitzer Prize after death.