BRIGHT RED BLOOMS OF AFFLICTION
American poetess Sylvia Plath is perhaps best known for The Bell Jar, a perennial must-read for high school English classes. Plath's poetry is poignantly confessional, often focusing on dark psychological themes. Biographers agree, across the board, that Plath was probably schizophrenic or bipolar.
"Tulips" is no exception. Most literary analysts contend that Plath wrote this poem about her miscarriage, which she experienced in February 1961. Others maintain that she penned the poem while hospitalized after attempting suicide.
Almost exactly two years after her miscarriage, as a mother with a toddler, Plath committed suicide by ingesting an overdose of sleeping pills and inhaling fumes from her gas oven.
Whether the poem arose from the loss of her unborn child or from an unsuccessful attempt to take her own life, "Tulips" certainly explores the poet's own deep, emotional turbulence and personal stress.
Following is a brief analysis of Plath's poem, "Tulips."
POETIC FORMAT:
"Tulips" includes nine stanzas, with seven unrhymed lines in each one. The meter and rhythm varies in each verse, as Plath's writing displays the uneven sensations and psychological instability with which she certainly struggled.
LITERARY ANALYSIS
Bright red tulips are the primary image in the poem. These striking, but somewhat fragile, flowers, which emerge at the end of winter each year, seem to offer stark contrast to the bleak, dark frigid days.
As Plath remains confined to a hospital bed, attempting to recuperate, she meditates upon the blood-red blooms. By the sixth stanza, it becomes clear that a well-wisher has brought the blossoms to Plath's hospital room.
Tulips grow tall and bold in the early months of the year, often before warm weather arrives. A harsh wind may tear the petals away, leaving bare stems standing. Perhaps this is how Plath feels, after the life has been stripped from her body, either by miscarriage or the personal struggles leading to her a suicide attempt.
Relinquishing her clothing, her personal history and her privacy to the hospital staff ("I have given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses and my history to the anesthetist and my body to surgeons."), the patient attempts to remain passive for her recovery.
Plath uses similes and metaphors to describe the scene. She says her head is propped on the pillows "like an eye between two white lids." The nurses are portrayed as seagulls, flitting around her bed. She likens her own body to a pebble, with waves awash on it, again portraying her own passivity. It is as if she has already checked out, at least emotionally.
Scanning her surroundings, Plath likens her own bag of personal possessions to a pillbox. Her photographed family grins from a nearby frame, and she describes their smiles as hooks. Perhaps the family bond is all that keeps her hanging onto life. Continuing the seaside imagery, Plath portrays herself as an old cargo boat, vacant of all but the most vital statistics.
By the fourth stanza, the center of the poem, Plath seems to address the real issue. "They have swabbed me clear of my loving associations." It seems likely that she is speaking of the surgical procedure following her miscarriage, as she has been medically parted from the child she had eagerly anticipated. However, she has also been medically parted from herself, if a sense. The following lines illustrate this, as Plath observes her tea set, linens, books and other personal belongings disappearing.
At the end of this section, Plath claims she is as pure as a nun, with no attachments.
Finally, the poem returns to the floral image. Plath claims she never wanted flowers. It seems she preferred to welcome emptiness. This sounds like an obtuse confession of a desire for death.
The flowers, as described in the sixth stanza, are stark and red. They seem to inspire fear in the poet. She compares them to "an awful baby," swaddled in white. This colorful imagery adds to the poet's pain, just like "a dozen red sinkers," dragging her to the depths of despair.
A confession of loneliness appears in the seventh stanza. Perhaps unnoticed before, Plath knows she is under close supervision now, or possibly, a suicide watch. "I have no face," she writes, and "I have wanted to efface myself." This point-counterpoint portrays her self-destructive depression.
As the poem winds to a close, Plath points out how the tulips capture her attention through their scent and sight. She compares them to a raging river, a rusted engine and dangerous animals.
Beholding this, Plath considers the pain of her own heart, as she tastes her own salty tears. The imagery makes the conclusion unmistakable, as the hearty red tulips portray the state of her own heart, which "comes from a country as far away as health."
SOURCES:
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/s ylviaplath/1455
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/syl via-plath/
http://www.neuroticpoets.com/plath
http://w ww.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=178974