Sylvia Plath Quote
ParalyticIt happens. Will it go on? ----My mind a rock,No fingers to grip, no tongue,My god the iron lungThat loves me, pumpsMy twoDust bags in and out,Will notLet me relapseWhile the day outside glides by like ticker tape.The night brings violets,Tapestries of eyes,Lights,The soft anonymousTalkers: 'You all right?'The starched, inaccessible breast.Dead egg, I lieWholeOn a whole world I cannot touch,At the white, tightDrum of my sleeping couchPhotographs visit me ----My wife, dead and flat, in 1920 furs,Mouth full of pearls,Two girlsAs flat as she, who whisper 'We're your daughters.'The still watersWrap my lips,Eyes, nose and ears,A clearCellophane I cannot crack.On my bare backI smile, a buddha, allWants, desireFalling from me like ringsHugging their lights.The clawOf the magnolia,Drunk on its own scents,Asks nothing of life.
ParalyticIt happens. Will it go on? ----My mind a rock,No fingers to grip, no tongue,My god the iron lungThat loves me, pumpsMy twoDust bags in and out,Will notLet me relapseWhile the day outside glides by like ticker tape.The night brings violets,Tapestries of eyes,Lights,The soft anonymousTalkers: 'You all right?'The starched, inaccessible breast.Dead egg, I lieWholeOn a whole world I cannot touch,At the white, tightDrum of my sleeping couchPhotographs visit me ----My wife, dead and flat, in 1920 furs,Mouth full of pearls,Two girlsAs flat as she, who whisper 'We're your daughters.'The still watersWrap my lips,Eyes, nose and ears,A clearCellophane I cannot crack.On my bare backI smile, a buddha, allWants, desireFalling from me like ringsHugging their lights.The clawOf the magnolia,Drunk on its own scents,Asks nothing of life.
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About Sylvia Plath
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Plath graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts and the University of Cambridge, England, where she was a student at Newnham College. Plath later studied with Robert Lowell at Boston University, alongside poets Anne Sexton and George Starbuck. She married fellow poet Ted Hughes in 1956, and they lived together in the United States and then in England. Their relationship was tumultuous and, in her letters, Plath alleges abuse at his hands. They had two children before separating in 1962.
Plath was clinically depressed for most of her adult life and was treated multiple times with early versions of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). She died by suicide in 1963.