Can you tell a person’s story in six poems?
I may be the ideal person to test that question. Before I read The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath in Six Poems by Sarah Ruden, I knew three or four things about Sylvia Plath (1932-1963): she’d been in a rather awful marriage with British poet Ted Hughes; she committed suicide; she’d published the autobiographical The Bell Jar under another name; and she had become a political icon for many people.
I knew about the marriage because I had read Crow by Ted Hughes and some of his biographical information. I’m not sure how I learned about the icon business, but, rightly or wrongly, I tend to shy away from poets and writers who become an icon for a political cause. I don’t have a good, thoughtful reason for that; it just is. And I had read only three of her poems – “Morning Song,” “Lady Lazarus,” and “Daddy.”
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
Some Tuesday Readings
“The Whitsun Weddings,” poem by Philip Larkin – Abdrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.
T.S. Eliot and the Whitsun Fire – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.
On Marianne Moore, Unexpected Celebrity Poet of Midcentury America – Susan Gubar at Literary Hub.
“Summer Song,” poem by William Carlos Williams – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.
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