What was sylvia plath childhood like

But it was criticized for its absence of a personal voice. Not until "Three Women: A Monologue for Three Voices" —a radio play that was considered a key work by some critics—would Plath begin to free her style and write more natural, less narrative telling a story poetry. As Plath's poetry developed, it became more autobiographical about her own life and private.

Almost all the poems in Ariel , considered her finest work and written during the last few months of her life, are personal accounts of her anger, insecurity, fear, and tremendous sense of loneliness and death. She had found the voice that she had tried to express for so long.

Violent and vivid in its description of suicide, death, and brutality, Ariel shocked critics, especially several poems that compare her father to a member of the Nazis members of the ruling party in Germany, —45, who killed six million Jewish people during World War II [—45], which was a war fought between Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the United States against Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Plath could not escape the tragedy that invaded and took over her personal life. By February her marriage had ended. She was ill and living on the edge of another breakdown while caring for two small children in a small apartment in London, England, during the coldest winter in years. On February 11 she killed herself. The last thing she did was to leave her children two mugs of milk and a plate of buttered bread.

In later poetry published after her death in Crossing The Water and Winter Trees , Plath voiced her long-hidden rage over "years of doubleness, smiles, and compromise.

Although Sylvia Plath is often regarded by critics as the poet of death, her final poems, which deal with the self and how it goes about living in a destructive, materialistic focused on the acquiring of material wealth world, clearly express her need for faith in the healing powers of art. Alexander, Paul. New York: Viking, , revised edition Butscher, Edward. Sylvia Plath: Method and Madness. New York: Seabury Press, Rosenblatt, Jon. Sylvia Plath: The Poetry of Initiation. Wagner-Martin, Linda.

Sylvia Plath: A Literary Life. This meant that The New Yorker would read all of Plath's new poems and have first choice at accepting them for publication. In Plath completed 22 poems. Aurelia Plath came to England in mid-June. There are no specific references to Plath's novel in any letter home between March and Mrs. Plath's arrival to England. It should come as no surprise that Plath wanted to keep this novel very secret. In July the Hugheses took a holiday in France At the end of this holiday, the Hugheses went house hunting around England, settling on a house in the southwest.

Court Green had nine rooms, an attic, and a cellar. Plath and Hughes needed to pass on their current London flat at 3 Chalcot Square. They advertised in the papers and a young Canadian poet and his German-Russian wife seemed best. The young couple was David and Assia Wevill. It is really the first poem that is just plain brilliant. Plath is looking out of her window and she "simply cannot see where there is to get to. She's trapped in this poem, cannot see in what direction to head. She needs this direction.

But what Plath did not know is that when she wrote this poem, it was she that had taken off. On 28 October , Plath's first women's magazine short story was published in My Weekly.

Somehow with two children, writing and cleaning up Court Green, Plath began writing fantastic, powerful poetry sometime around April. These are the true Ariel poems, and what would lead to the best poems of her life. Plath wrote the wonderful "Elm" and a series of poems expressing concern for Hughes' treatment of animals, "The Rabbit Catcher" being the most famous.

May and June seems to have solidified all the troubles the Hugheses would have. Plath became increasingly suspicious that Ted was having an affair. She wrote the poem "Apprehensions" and "Event" in May. However, it was not all negative. The book appears differently as some of the poems very clearly inspired by Theodore Roethke were omitted. Plath was always eager to make changes to her works if it meant getting them published.

In June, Aurelia Plath came to visit and meet Nicholas. Whilst Mrs. Plath was in England, Plath found out for certain of her husbands infidelity. It seems to be a mixed blessing that Aurelia Plath was there. Plath was most certainly embarrassed and angry, but I suspect it was good that her mother was there to help her out. One of Plath's problems with living in Devon and in England for that matter is that she had very few friends, which meant she wrote many letters to her girlfriends back in the US.

In September , Hughes and Plath went to Ireland for a holiday to mend their relationship. However, within a day or two of being there, Hughes left abruptly. Plath returned alone to Devon. Late in the month they decided for a legal separation, though most of Plath's friends and family were in favor of a divorce.

In October, Plath went on a poetic rampage! She wrote over 25 poems during the month. Most of them would be published in as Ariel. The high period of productivity occurred very early in the morning, before the children rose.

Plath began somewhere around four in the morning and wrote until the children woke. Her letters home during this period also lends a different sort of view.

There are no known journal entries for this important period. Hughes claims that at least one journal has been 'lost' and one destroyed. The publication on 3 April of the unedited Journals of Sylvia Plath cover the period of , with the later entries from being character sketches and possible descriptions for future novels and short stories.

Beginning in June , Plath took meticulous notes on people, houses, feelings, etc. This certainly helped her creative output and range of controlled emotion in the October poems.

During the month of November, Plath was looking for a flat in London. She was fond of the Primrose Hill area, where she lived when Frieda was born. She found a flat at 23 Fitzroy Road. It is the building where W. Yeats once lived in and she considered it a great sign, a sign of great things to come.

Plath and Hughes wore married faces in an attempt to get Plath the lease on the bigger of the two flats, comprising of the top two floors. A man called Trevor Thomas had also applied for the top two floors, for himself and his sons. Plath and Hughes paid several years rent up front, and the deal was done. The ordeal of securing the flat and starting to pack up Court Green was responsible for a less productive month after mid-November.

Plath and the children moved into the flat in December. She finished only two poems in the month of December. With the onset of a terrible winter and Plath spending many hours painting and laboring, it is no surprise.

Plath was still sending poems off, as was usual for her, but was finding publishers not too eager to accept these new, powerful poems. It is as though the publishers somehow were not ready for poems of such magnitude. Plath was mostly alone, although some friends did visit and she was out when possible. Hughes visited regularly and often took Frieda and Nicholas to the London Zoo, which was just through the park.

Plath and her children were without a telephone and the heat was poor or non-existent. Plath's friend, the critic A Alvarez, did come by the apartment on Christmas Eve but could only stay a short while as he had other plans.

Alvarez was the first critic to notice her poems and has been highly influential in Plath studies sincea very trusted voice. The winter that would follow would be recorded as one of the coldest to date. Pipes froze and there was plenty of ice and snow on the ground. To read a faithful, funny and detailed account of the winter please read Plath's "Snow Blitz" a work included in collection Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams.

Or, better still, find and read British newspapers for the time period of December February This may provide an authentic account of the day-to-day trials. The Bell Jar was published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas on 14 January and received mostly positive reviews, though most appeared after her death. Plath's American publisher, Knopf, had not been interested with the story, thinking it either too personal or a case study.

Reviews were not as positive as she hoped. Though she called the novel a 'pot-boiler' to nearly everyone who knew of it, its acceptance did weigh heavily on her.

Though not writing poetry, Plath had been writing some non-fiction prose pieces at this time. But, by late January, she began writing in what was another outburst of poetry, completing twelve new poems in just fifteen days, all in a brand new voice. This includes the fine poems of February It had taken Plath less than two months to begin a new collection of poetry, all in this new voice.

The public does not know whether or not she began any poems in the last six days of her life. It is not known what her Journals say or what is in many of the letters she might have written.

We only know it was cold, the children were sick and Plath was severely depressed. In early morning of 11 February , Plath took her own life. She placed her head in a gas oven after completely sealing the rooms between herself and her children. She left a note for the man who lived downstairs, Trevor Thomas, to call her doctor. However, rather than rising, the gas seeped through the floor and knocked Mr Thomas out cold for several hours.

An au pair girl was to arrive at nine o'clock that morning to help Plath with the care of her children. Arriving promptly at 9, the au pair could not get into the flat. She had previously asked Mr Thomas what time he would be leaving. A note was placed that read "Call Dr Horder" and left his phone number. These measures were too time-sensitive and could have saved Plath's life if events followed her suggested logic. Plath was buried in Heptonstall less than a week after her death.

Sylvia Plath's gravesite in Yorkshire is now visited by hundreds of people each year. Peter K. A celebration, this is sylviaplath. Jump to: Plath at Smith, She is still a highly regarded and much-studied poet to this day. The story of Plath — her troubled life and tragic death — was the basis for the biopic Sylvia starring Gwyneth Paltrow in the title role. We strive for accuracy and fairness.

If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. Sylvia Rivera was a Latina-American drag queen who was a gay and transgender activist in the s and 70s.

Robert Frost was an American poet who depicted realistic New England life through language and situations familiar to the common man. He won four Pulitzer Prizes for his work and spoke at John F. Kennedy's inauguration. Ruby Dee was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, activist, poet and journalist, perhaps best known for starring in the film A Raisin in the Sun.

She's also known for her civic work with husband Ossie Davis. Auden was a British poet, author and playwright best known as a leading literary figure in the 20th century for his poetry. Margaret Mitchell wrote the bestselling novel 'Gone With the Wind,' which was made into an enduring classic film.

Alexander McQueen was a London-based, English fashion designer who was head designer of the Louis Vuitton Givenchy fashion line, before starting his own line. Olivia Rodrigo —. Megan Thee Stallion —.