by Vicki Phipps

Created on: July 20, 2008   Last Updated: July 21, 2008

Tulips, by Sylvia Plath seems to be a poetic expression of depression, and due to the depression and health issues she suffered from, I'd assume she wrote this poem through her own view in a hospital room. Her amazing ability to paint a picture with words, poetically, is seen in every line and that's why her work survived her life time. Within her poem, "Tulips," what reads like a story might be symbolic of the view Sylvia Plath had of her own painful life.

A WHITE PURE SCENE: AN INTRUSION

From the very first sentence, we feel and see the distracting view that comes from someone who wants to be left alone in a solitude all their own. "The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here." Since winter represents the final stages of life and tulips come in spring time, it seems she is giving us a visual picture of the confusion she was feeling, as well as her suffering. The poet describes the scene immediately, and the fact that she provides the color of white for the reader to focus upon gives me the view of her need for healing, since white is clean and pure. The contrast between the white, sterile surroundings and the tulips are too distracting.

The message within the first seven lines seems to be that she wants to cleanse, or strip her body and mind of the pain. We know this from her expression of giving her name, clothes, history and body away. "I am nobody," means to me that she felt completely empty and void of any need. To her, this felt peaceful, pure and serene.

TULIPS: SYMBOLIC OF PAIN

To most people, tulips would be an appreciated gift to receive in a hospital setting, where everything seems to be so impersonal. The flowers would remind most people of the vivid colors of spring and a time for renewal in life, but this melancholy poet describes the sight of the tulips as an explosive invasion of what she is learning to achieve, which she describes it as, "peacefulness," but she might be expressing a death wish.

As I read between the lines, the tulips seem to remind her of what life was like on the outside of her hospital room and solitude. They might have reminded her of her own pain "I have nothing to do with explosions," seems to be her way to express the need to num herself from anything excitable and explosive. As I read, it seems to me that she felt as if life itself was too excitable to tolerate, as she remains lying in bed, surrounded by sterile white and distracted by her memory of what life was like. The fact that she uses tulips as a way to define

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