Modeling poem #1

Sylvia Plath, Friday Night with my Family

Another dull Friday night with my husband and children
We are sitting in front of the TV and watching The Hathaways.
This bizarre sitcom makes me suffocate and die
Just like this room and Ted who must have a hidden affair.

But what should I do? Daddy, you must help me.
I wonder what you are doing right now. Are you a cherub or a damned soul?
I want to follow you, to be the next one to die after you---
Kids, stop pulling each other’s hair! --- Oh, you are like a bunch of bees.

I feel the relieving death so close to me, and now I am longing for it.
One day, you will wake up and you will not find me here anymore.
I will be like those in those German camps,
Breathing the black poison-gas while being laughed at by some dumb soldiers.

Then you can call Dr. Horder or anyone else you want,
No one will help you and me, the unique Easter miracle will not be observed again.
And I am going to be together with my Daddy,
We will be floating together towards Eternity.

1962

Modeling poem #1

I chose to imitate Sylvia Plath in this assignment because we had many poem of her so it was easier to imitate her this way. First I read her autobiography and collected her major ideas just like her fascination with death, her relationship with her father, her grief and rage. Among her ideas I also found her inclination to suicide, her confusion, the memory of her German ancestors related to the Nazi Holocaust.
I followed the aspects of confessionalism as discussed in class. So I let speak the “I” of the poem, i.e. the author herself. The whole poem is about her feelings, emotions and passions. I know that Plath had an inborn hatred for household chores and caring with a big family so I deliberately opened the poem with a Friday night “let’s watch TV together” scene. I suppose every Friday night to be alike, nothing ever changes in the life of the family and that is what kills Plath and makes her suffocate. The Hathaways were a short-run TV show on ABC in the 60s; it was about a suburban family and about its life. I deliberately chose it to symbolize Plath’s life and the circumstances she lived in. This way I could even make the pop culture appear. The boredom, the routine and the mediocrity of her life slowly makes her parish. This is my off-center opening as well. She does not immediately begin to speak about her long for death; first we are kind of introduced to her life.
The criterion of the autobiographical subject is absolutely achieved in the poem, I opened it with this TV scene, than I introduced her husband, Ted Hughes, and made and allusion to his affair which is not entirely known by Sylvia though she is still suspicious. The infidelity of her husband just makes the situation even worse, and by revealing her suspicion to the audience, she chose to speak about a taboo subject. The other autobiographical element was the evocation of her father (Daddy) who is the very person she wants to be with. I even made Dr. Horder, her M.D. of that time, appear to ensure the lifelike settings of the poem.
The Freudian scheme of irrelevant detail is also here, the children stand for it. We have a small allusion to their presence; they are just pulling each other’s hair and they need to be frowned on. I suppose her life to be full of events like this one; obviously this is not her dream and does not get very excited about bringing children up. I put here a free association concerning the children who are like a “bunch of restless bees”.
While writing the poem I did not forget to criterion of colloquial style. Its vocabulary is quite simple, the author addresses the audience and I did not put there any mythological element, only one allusion to Jesus’ Redemption and a cherub (but I do not know if she was religious or not).
The last two lines are supposed to be the final symbolic broadening, where everything finds its proper place and the author finds relief and peace, i.e. she finally dies.
As far as the free or open forms, I was happy to use them as I did not have to find rhymes or count the syllables.
Anyway this poem is from 1962, one year before her suicide, when everything is just collapsing around her and she cannot handle with her life anymore.