I’m not a Sylvia Plath fan, exactly - I find many of her poems tedious in subject matter, and I don’t feel that she earns many of her metaphors, the “Daddy as Nazi” metaphor in “Daddy” being a prime example. But the woman is a master of sound. As tedious as I find “Daddy” to read, the poem is a delight to hear read.
But Plath absolutely shines in her poem “Fever 103,” in which she perfectly pairs the electricity of her sound with some absolutely incandescent subjects and images. You can find the text at the Poetry Foundation’s website. I highly recommend that you read along while listening to the recording of Plath reading the poem included in this episode of the alt.NPR podcast, “Poetry off the Shelf.”
The discussion of the poem is extremely helpful, as the poem, like any fever dream, is largely illisible - even though you’re not going to understand the poem completely, it’s extraordinarily helpful to have other readers crack open a few paths into the heart of the poem that you may not have found otherwise.
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Great reading! This is a poem that benefits from explication. Reminds me of Wallace Stevens with a hangover.
I like the “indellible smell of a snuffed candle”
The “hiroshima ash”, “flickering lights” and “pure acetaline virgin”
Also reminds me of Viginia Woolf’s “On Being Ill” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Being_Ill
Thanks for the post!
“Wallace Stevens with a hangover.” I never thought about it that way, but dude, you’re totally right.
And yes, it helps that “acetylene” is one of my favorite words, but the “pure acetylene virgin” line is easily my favorite line from the poem.
Keep in touch; I’m going to need some reading suggestions once they’re not just assigned to me.
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