Analysing the Moon and the Yew Tree
THE MOON AND THE YEW TREE
Sylvia Plath
This poem fundamentally details how Sylvia Plath sees her life, through the metaphors and images she was so fond of. By using the word "planetary" in the first line, we gain a sense of how she saw her role in the world - still part of the solar system, but living in her own world, disconnected and distanced from everyone else. The point of the poem is to illustrate the different relationships Sylvia Plath had with the three most important and influential people in her life; her dead father, her mother who offered her little, if any support, and the elusive Hughes. By deliberately identifying throughout the negative("She is not sweet like Mary") Plath subtly portrays herself as a victim, not accusing her mother of neglecting her, just suggesting and implying that one of the reasons for her "complete despair" is this women. Her parents never saw her depression, and Hughes was - seemingly - oblivious to her neediness, and she could not turn to religion for hope and comfort, finding blind faith to be restrictive. It is a desolate poem, haunting in its imagery and the empathy it inspires.
Sylvia Plath is looking for a way back to herself, to life - she is suicidal.
"Separated from my house by a row of headstones."
She seeks rescue and hope in religion "How I would like to believe in tenderness ----" but the saints are only cold delicate statues "stiff with holiness" and she finds no help. She seeks rescue through nature but nature treats her as if she were God and holds the answers to life's grief - she has no answers. She seeks rescue in the moon but the moon only reflects back her own wild and frightening despair and she is tormented by it. Separated from herself by thoughts of suicide she desperately looks to nature, the Holy Mother and church, and the sky - but all she ever sees are frightening reflections of herself, darkness and death.
According to some critics/writers the Yew tree represents death, rebirth and
Sylvia Plath
This poem fundamentally details how Sylvia Plath sees her life, through the metaphors and images she was so fond of. By using the word "planetary" in the first line, we gain a sense of how she saw her role in the world - still part of the solar system, but living in her own world, disconnected and distanced from everyone else. The point of the poem is to illustrate the different relationships Sylvia Plath had with the three most important and influential people in her life; her dead father, her mother who offered her little, if any support, and the elusive Hughes. By deliberately identifying throughout the negative("She is not sweet like Mary") Plath subtly portrays herself as a victim, not accusing her mother of neglecting her, just suggesting and implying that one of the reasons for her "complete despair" is this women. Her parents never saw her depression, and Hughes was - seemingly - oblivious to her neediness, and she could not turn to religion for hope and comfort, finding blind faith to be restrictive. It is a desolate poem, haunting in its imagery and the empathy it inspires.
Sylvia Plath is looking for a way back to herself, to life - she is suicidal.
"Separated from my house by a row of headstones."
She seeks rescue and hope in religion "How I would like to believe in tenderness ----" but the saints are only cold delicate statues "stiff with holiness" and she finds no help. She seeks rescue through nature but nature treats her as if she were God and holds the answers to life's grief - she has no answers. She seeks rescue in the moon but the moon only reflects back her own wild and frightening despair and she is tormented by it. Separated from herself by thoughts of suicide she desperately looks to nature, the Holy Mother and church, and the sky - but all she ever sees are frightening reflections of herself, darkness and death.
According to some critics/writers the Yew tree represents death, rebirth and