physic paper
"Cut" is one of Sylvia Plath's best confessional poems.It has been dedicated to Susan O'Neill Roe,Plath's nurse and a close friend during the period of her single motherhood.It is narrated by a woman who has just cut her thumb while slicing an onion.It has been written in a free verse and has ten,four-line stanzas.
The poet begins by saying, "What a thrill".She considers having cut her thumb to be exciting and interesting.The top part of her thumb has been cut of and a small hinge of skin is left out which fascinates her.She uses the simile 'A flap like hat' for comparison and this creates a picture in the minds of the readers.It is just a small incident from our daily life, but Plath exaggerates and puts her imagination into it.
She considers the thumb to be a pilgrim and says that the Indian's axed the scalp and blood rolls on the carpet and she steps on it.The blood keeps on flowing even though she applies pressure on it and it is like a celebration for her and thus she compares the blood flow to be like the pink fizz of a champange. She even relates the blood cells to be a million soldiers,the "red coats" who are escaping her body from the little gap.The reference to Homunculus might be Ted Hughes as in one of her letters she calls him little man.She doesn't know who's side they are on,the soldiers,her or Ted Hughes."I am ill. I have taken a pill to kill" tells us that now Plath is in pain and takes a painkiller to get rid of the papery feeling and now she feels bad about it.
She compares her white gauge dressing to Ku Klux Klan as the blood is staining it and calls her wound”Saboteur” and “Kamikaze man”.In the last part of the poem,Plath rarely uses prepositions and conjunctions which creates a kind of emphasis on the words and brings them to the notice of the reader.
Plath has used a lot of metaphors in her poem,out of gap,a million soldiers run,redcoats,everyone,where the blood from the cut of the thumb is compared to a flood of soldiers.Words like
The poet begins by saying, "What a thrill".She considers having cut her thumb to be exciting and interesting.The top part of her thumb has been cut of and a small hinge of skin is left out which fascinates her.She uses the simile 'A flap like hat' for comparison and this creates a picture in the minds of the readers.It is just a small incident from our daily life, but Plath exaggerates and puts her imagination into it.
She considers the thumb to be a pilgrim and says that the Indian's axed the scalp and blood rolls on the carpet and she steps on it.The blood keeps on flowing even though she applies pressure on it and it is like a celebration for her and thus she compares the blood flow to be like the pink fizz of a champange. She even relates the blood cells to be a million soldiers,the "red coats" who are escaping her body from the little gap.The reference to Homunculus might be Ted Hughes as in one of her letters she calls him little man.She doesn't know who's side they are on,the soldiers,her or Ted Hughes."I am ill. I have taken a pill to kill" tells us that now Plath is in pain and takes a painkiller to get rid of the papery feeling and now she feels bad about it.
She compares her white gauge dressing to Ku Klux Klan as the blood is staining it and calls her wound”Saboteur” and “Kamikaze man”.In the last part of the poem,Plath rarely uses prepositions and conjunctions which creates a kind of emphasis on the words and brings them to the notice of the reader.
Plath has used a lot of metaphors in her poem,out of gap,a million soldiers run,redcoats,everyone,where the blood from the cut of the thumb is compared to a flood of soldiers.Words like