Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Other subjects
Original poster

Sylvia Plath

22 replies

SorenDeLorensen · 24/03/2006 23:32

Just watched the film 'Sylvia' (Gwyneth Paltrow) - very sad. I read a biography of her a few years ago and the way she prepared for her suicide really stuck with me - how much she was thinking of her children, even when she was so near the end.

And - probably irreverent, but after half a bottle of wine I don't care - it occurred to me that she would probably have been OK these days. Mumsnet and Prozac would have got her through. Imagining the advice...

"He's not worth it, love (((hugs))). Get yourself to the GP and get some anti-d's. Forget that barstool - leave him to his new woman and their baby - he'll get his come-uppance one day. You're worth more than that."

Poor Sylvia Sad

OP posts:
roosmum · 24/03/2006 23:35

i haven't seen the film, but a lot of the stuff in her journals late in her life is Sad Sad

14 mo ds has taken to getting up reeaally early (i've been up at 4.30/5 this week), she used to do this - or even earlier - to write when her babies were v. small & she was on her own - no wonder she was going a bit crazy!

mn would've been good i reckon!

Original poster
SorenDeLorensen · 24/03/2006 23:36

She used to get up at 4am to write - wrote until dawn when her babies woke up. That's enough to send anyone loopy (and I'm not being flippant - it really is!)

OP posts:
spidermama · 24/03/2006 23:38

Some of her stuff is incredibly uplifting too, especially the stuff on motherhood. 'You're' for example. It's hard to believe, when you read her heartfelt maternal joy, that she came to such a sad ending.

eminencegrise · 24/03/2006 23:38

She was a better writer than Ted. And he knew it.

BadHair · 24/03/2006 23:40

Never lkeid her. thought she swsa oveyrl sefl nalaytical.

Ledodgy · 24/03/2006 23:41

I agree eminencegrise. It made me laugh the other week as Sylvia was on tv and my sil announced she's watched it and it was depressing! Apparently she'd never heard of her before.

Original poster
SorenDeLorensen · 24/03/2006 23:41

I have to admit I found The Bell Jar pretty undecipherable.

OP posts:
eminencegrise · 24/03/2006 23:41

Mad Girl's Love Song is awesome!

spidermama · 24/03/2006 23:43

It's a bit difficult to be a poet without being self-analytical isn't it?

Original poster
SorenDeLorensen · 24/03/2006 23:44

Mad Girl's Love Song
By Sylvia Plath

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

OP posts:
Original poster
SorenDeLorensen · 24/03/2006 23:44

I think all poets have to be a little mad, don't you?

OP posts:
spidermama · 24/03/2006 23:46

No, no. Why the poets are sane. Tis all the rest of us who are raving loonies. Wink

eminencegrise · 24/03/2006 23:47

I've got this BRILL poster from the Lord Byon exhibit when it was here in Edin at the National Portrait Gallery. There's his portrait in profile with the exhibit heading: 'Mad, Bad and Dangerous'.

Can't wait to see 'The Libertine', too.

roosmum · 24/03/2006 23:51

spidermama, her description of giving birth to her son is the most true, honest, realistic thing i've ever come across on childbirth, it's a great bit of writing.
& agree, something like 'you're' makes her death all the sadder & more surprising. tho some people think that she didn't mean to go through with suicide, & that it went horribly wrong.
Sad

eminencegrise · 24/03/2006 23:51

Her daughter, Freida, has spoken publicly and quite touchingly on both her mother and father.

eminencegrise · 24/03/2006 23:52

Sylvia had a long history of depression and even displayed depressive traits as a child from the death of her father when she was quite young.

Original poster
SorenDeLorensen · 24/03/2006 23:53

Maybe you're right, spidermama.

I think she did mean to kill herself. I think she had for a long time but had a brief 'hiatus' when she thought TH might be the one to 'save' her. She planned it too carefully - leaving her children breakfast, opening their window, sealing the doors...

OP posts:
roosmum · 24/03/2006 23:54

yes, frieda's poetry pretty good too.
recommend 'worooloo' (i think it's that anyway)
a great poem on a c-section iirc.

roosmum · 24/03/2006 23:54

sl - there was supposed to ba an au pair coming to be interviewed that morning too - but she didn't turn up...

Original poster
SorenDeLorensen · 24/03/2006 23:55

Frieda, that's right. I said to dh I thought her daughter was Freya (when we were watching the film). Wasn't far off. Will google her now.

OP posts:
Original poster
SorenDeLorensen · 24/03/2006 23:57

\link{http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,887734,00.html\Frieda didn't approve of the film} I guess I'm a 'peanut-eater'.

OP posts:
roosmum · 25/03/2006 00:03

there's been lots of controversy like this - particular example would be a book that psychoanalyses plath, 'the haunting of sylvia plath' by jacqueline rose. ted hughes was so incensed by the book he refused rose permission to quote plath. it's an interesting book, if you're into plath.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread