Author Archives: Latia Vergara

Blog Post #2 “Sylvia Plath”

 

Sylvia Plath was an American poet best known for her novel The Bell Jar, and for her poetry collections The Colossus and Ariel. Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 27, 1932. Sylvia Plath was a gifted and troubled poet, known for the confessional style of her work. Her interest in writing emerged at an early age, and she started out by keeping a journal. After publishing a number of works, Plath won a scholarship to Smith College in 1950.While she was a student, Sylvia Plath spent time in New York City during the summer of 1953 working for Mademoiselle magazine as a guest editor. Soon after, Plath tried to kill herself by taking sleeping pills. She eventually recovered, having received treatment during a stay in a mental health facility. Plath returned to Smith and finished her degree in 1955. A Fulbright Fellowship brought Sylvia Plath to Cambridge University in England. While studying at the university’s Newnham College, she met the poet Ted Hughes. The two married in 1956 and had a stormy relationship. In 1957, Plath spent time in Massachusetts to study with poet Robert Lowell and met fellow poet and student Ann Sexton. She also taught English at Smith College around that same time. Plath returned to England in 1959.

A poet on the rise, Sylvia Plath had her first collection of poetry, The Colossus, published in England in 1960. That same year, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Freida. Two years later, Plath and Hughes welcomed a second child, a son named Nicholas. Unfortunately, the couple’s marriage was failing apart. After Hughes left her for another woman in 1962, Sylvia Plath fell into a deep depression. Struggling with her mental illness, she wrote The Bell Jar (1963), her only novel, which was based on her life and deals with one young woman’s mental breakdown. Plath published the novel under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. She also created the poems that would make up the collection Ariel (1965), which was released after her death. Sylvia Plath committed suicide on February 11, 1963.Against the wishes of fans and admirers of Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes became her literary executor after her death. While there has been some speculation about how he handled her papers and her image, he did edit what is considered by many to her greatest work, Ariel. It featured several of her most well-known poems, including “Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus.” He continued to produce new collections of Plath’s works. Sylvia Plath won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for Collected Poems. She is still a highly regarded and much studied poet to this day. The story of Sylvia Plath—her troubled life and tragic death—was the basis for the 2003 biopic Sylvia starring Gwyneth Paltrow in the title role.

 

Resurrection

Part of Speech: Noun

Definition: The action or fact of resurrecting or being resurrected.(in Christian belief) the rising of the dead at the Last Judgment.

Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Found In: “Not a Mile” By Andrew Grace

“Not a mile from where my students show me outlines of what they are trying to say about resurrection, one of the men pulls a phone out of his mesh shorts and call Columbus”.

I feel resurrection was used to describe the men who were being brung back to consciousness by the Narcan. The word resurrection was used in its original context.

Anaphora

Part of Speech: Noun

Definition: The use of a word referring to or replacing a word used earlier in a sentence, to avoid repetition, such as do in I like it and so do they.

Source: Webster Dictionary

Found In: “Not a Mile” By Andrew Grace

“My students are sincerely trying to analyze death: its cadence and anaphora, its German origins. Line 21-23

Anaphora has nothing to do with death so the speaker is using figurative language to try and paint a picture in the readers head. I guess he is trying to explain how often death occurs.

Fermented

Part of Speech: Verb

Definition: To incite or stir up (trouble or disorder).

Found In: “Fine Dining in Cell Block C” By Nancy Miller Gomez

“He mixes in the jelly packets from breakfast with butter substitute that looks like Vaseline, presses the sweet purple into a paste of peanut butter to create a base for a secret sauce fermented six days for this special dish”. Line 7-12

The speaker is using personification to describe how the food was made. Food cannot stir up trouble.

Acrid

Part of Speech: Adjective

Definition: Having an irritatingly strong and unpleasant taste or smell.

Found In: “Punishment” By Nancy Miller Gomez

“The burnt colors of fear–more smell than color, vaporous and acrid” Line 15-16

Fear doesnt have a smell or color, so the speaker is using figurative language to exaggerate her feelings.

Iridescent

Part of Speech: Adjective

Definition: Showing luminous colors that seem to change when seen from different angles.

Source: Dictionary.com

Found In: “Punishment” By Nancy Miller Gomez

“The Iridescent scream of a sharp-shinned hawk circling somewhere in the pastel wash” Line 8-9.

A hawks screams cannot be Iridescent. The writer was using figurative language because a scream is not in color.

Blog Post #2

Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts. Sylvia Plath was a gifted and troubled poet, known for the confessional style of her work. Her interest in writing came at an early age, and she started out by keeping a journal. After publishing a number of poems, Plath won a scholarship to Smith College in 1950.While she was a student, Sylvia Plath spent time in New York City during the summer of 1953 working for Mademoiselle magazine as a guest editor. Soon after, Plath tried to kill herself by taking sleeping pills. She eventually recovered, having received treatment during a stay in a mental health facility. Plath returned to Smith and finished her degree in 1955. A Fulbright Fellowship brought Sylvia Plath to Cambridge University in England. While studying at the university’s Newnham College, she met the poet Ted Hughes. The two married in 1956 and had a stormy relationship. She also taught English at Smith College around that same time. Plath returned to England in 1959.A poet on the rise, Sylvia Plath had her first collection of poetry, The Colossus, published in England in 1960. That same year, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Freida. Two years later, Plath and Hughes welcomed a second child, a son named Nicholas. Unfortunately, the couple’s marriage was failing apart.  After Hughes left her for another woman in 1962, Sylvia Plath fell into a deep depression. Struggling with her mental illness, she wrote The Bell Jar (1963), her only novel, which was based on her life and deals with one young woman’s mental breakdown. Plath published the novel under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. She also created the poems that would make up the collection Ariel (1965), which was released after her death. Sylvia Plath committed suicide on February 11, 1963.Against the wishes of some admirers of Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes became her literary executor after her death. While there has been some speculation about how he handled her papers and her image, he did edit what is considered by many to be her greatest work, Ariel. It featured several of her most well-known poems, including “Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus.” He continued to produce new collections of Plath’s works. Sylvia Plath won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for Collected Poems. She is still a highly regarded and much studied poet to this day.

 

Citations

Sylvia Plath. Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 28 Apr. 2017, www.biography.com/people/sylvia-plath-9442550.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/Sylvia Plath

https://www.biography.com/people/Sylvia Plath

 

Poetry in Motion-Remembering Summer- W.S. Merwin

In searching for a poem for my blog post #1, I found a poem on the A train titled “Remembering Summer” by W.S. Merwin. My initial reaction to reading this poem was enlightenment at the thought that this poem was here to bring joy to the riders that happened to notice this great piece of literature. All the bright colors and fine lines that flowed around the poems white background was a real attention grabber, but still people just passed it by. I feel this particular poem was chosen for subway riders to read because it is calming and relatable for a New Yorker to long for the summer.

I feel the speaker is a fellow New Yorker, talking about his love of summer and longing for its arrival. This is supported when the speaker says “I can sit here now still listening to it, which is the final line of the poem. This supports the fact that he can still hear this sound that is so pleasant to him at the thought of summer.The poem explores a few themes such as love, Longing, and admiration. The themes are  supported when the speaker says only negative thing about winter and pleasant things about summer. I think this poem is accessible to the general reader because it does not make you think too much about the message. One of the questions I have about this poem is what was the purpose of adding the ninth line “the evenings with the hens still talking in the lane”. How does that line relate to the rest of the poem.
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Glossary

Unerring

Part of speech: Adjective

Definition: infallible; incapable

Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary

The word is found in the Claude McKay poem America, in the thirteenth line.

“Beneath the touch of Time’s unerring hand”

He is using the word as an adjective to describe Americas incapabilities and how it makes him feel.

Glossary

Chatter

Part of speech: Verb

Definition: to talk fast or too much.

Source: Merriam-Webster

The word is found in the Amy Lowell poem Aliens, in the first line.

“The chatter of little people/ Breaks on my purpose”

She is using the word as a  verb to describe them talking but she describes them in a way that seems to annoy.