What do you guys think of Sylvia Plath? i havent read any of

>>7338043
Almost the same thing before when orson Scott card said he didn't agree with gay marriage. Suddenly the after uneducated feel this is grounds to in discount his in work. Troll harder, spades. Your writing for just isn't on with par with whitey

>>7338043
I liked it, but my impression is biased - I was awfully depressed when I read it (I'm still in therapy) so I found in the novel 'someone' who knows what shes's talking about.
I highly prefer her journal though. Her downfall is more accurately portrayed, I think it gives a good insight of how clinical depression looks from the inside. It's a shame that her last journal was burned by her husband.

>is her poetry significantly better than her novel?
Yes. Ariel was a fine work, impressive craft for someone as young as she was.

Her poetry is well crafted - people who dispute that are dilettantes or have Procrustean programs of poetics - but it shows evidence of both her mania and her youth.

She uses imagery and abrupt utterances in a very opaque, lightly surreal, psuedo-prophetic way that I feel is characteristic of mania, having experienced people with it.

I'm neutral on this. I prefer poetry more like Auden's and Stevens where there is a sort of gradual building up of meaning. I also really like the open, emotional poetry of Snodgrass and Larkin. Your enjoyment of her may vary with your taste.

Her youth shows through in the edginess of a lot of the poems. Use of Nazi imagry, that kind of thing. I think it flaws the poetry.

>>7338082
What do people mean by craft in poetry?
Could you give an example?

>>7338088

By craft I mean the way the sounds and rhythms of the words are put together, the way the sentences are organized across lines, the skill in the selection of words given the poem's own aim.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178965

This is probably my favorite poem of hers. If you want to understand what I mean by "craft" read this on the page, then out loud with attention to the line breaks.

>>7338108
Is that free meter poetry?

>>7338120
No, it's far from free verse. If you mean, is it tightly rhymed and obviously iambic, but no, it's not... however

Nobody in the lane, and nothing, nothing but blackberries,/blackberries on either side, though on the right mainly,

scans as

NoBODy IN the LANE, and NOTHing, NOTHing BUT BLACKBERries

BLACKberries, on EITHer SIDE though ON the RIGHT MAINLY

They're both varying from an iambic mean. There's a variation at the end of line 1 to emphasize the blackbarries. The B of but plus two stresses. The next line varies from the iambic first line to build the emphasis even more, look how many blackberries they are, how overwhemingly colorful. Returns to iambs. Then there's a variation that's mirroring the previous line and also tying lane and main together, and blackberries and ly together in a slant. It's coming from the way the speaker is proceeding on his or her walk.

This is really subtle and artful craft by somebody who knows meter.

>>7338082

Didn't Bloom absolutely hate her poetry? Or was that Woolf's...

>>7338135

MAINLY should be MAINly in my scansion, I forgot to change it as I worked it out. I hope I've come across as clear. You can go through the poem and more or less continue finding what I'm finding. She's very good at using internal rhymes to keep the poem moving along, as well as stresses in key places.

The Bell Jar is pretty great. It's not high art but it's one of the better depictions of a downward spiral. Some good sentences here and there.

>>7338108
Are you the same guy that talks about "craft" in every Plath thread?

>>7338279
Yes, that's me. Why? Is that some kind of limp insult?

>>7338295
No just wondering really. I just think it's funny that in every thread a guy shows up, explains why he likes her poetry specifically using the word "craft" and then calls those who don't agree dilettantes.

>>7338279
Not him but what are you supposed to talk about in a poetry thread? You want to shitpost about woman instead?

>>7338279
It could be me too. I talk about craft in every poetry thread, about Sylvia Plath or not.

>>7338313
I posted the "dilettantes post." You want to dispute my actual reading?

>>7338239
>It's not high art
>Some good sentences here and there.
this is the epitome of /lit/ criticism

The bell Jar Progresses pretty nicely. I almost thought about suicide for a while after reading it. Good Stuff.

>>7338043
I spent the whole book wishing the protagonist would hurry up and kill herself already.
Plato was my least favorite unit in high school english.

What other jars could there be? How about a yell jar? Haha

>>7338043
I love The Bell Jar, but I think she was a better poet than a novelist, i'd recommend Ariel, which is her best book of poetry in my opinion

>>7339088
Haha, nice one!