The Secret of Sylvia Plath’s Uniqueness
The Secret of Path’s Universal Appeal
Sylvia Plath’s verse is a marvel that continues to captivate and enamor readers to this day. Her inimitable gift for transmuting the quotidian into the enigmatic, spellbinding, and mystical is what endears her work to many. The poem “Lady Lazarus” stands as a prime example, as Plath invests the prosaic act of brushing the giant eyebrow of a statue with such detail and emotiveness that it becomes a momentous epic (Plath, 1962).
The French philosopher Paul Ricoeur speaks of mimesis as the imitation of significant human action through art and its elevation to the heroic pedestal. To Sylvia Plath, the irony of modern life for a woman lies within a whole culture mobilized to hammer her existence flat and mold her into something she’s not. With that realization in mind, Plath employs her creative demons of resistance by turning the heroic pedestal upside down. She invests mundane realities with such surreal details and eerily uncanny air, that does not fail every time she magnifies the import of everyday life, to transform our petty misfortunes into grandiose experiences (Ricoeur, 1970). This aptitude to fill the void in our existence and imbue our memories with added significance is what lends Plath’s poetry its beguiling allure.
Even more enchanting, Plath’s appeal transcends her writing, extending to the poet herself. Despite criticisms that she was “crazy” or “depressed,” that only adds to the flavor; Plath’s capability to make an apparently inconsequential life of immense significance only elevates the value of her life. As Plath attests in her poem “Edge,” she delved into the depths of her emotions and embraced the darkness within, for as long as it fueled her creativity, ire, and passions, which in turn fueled her poetry (Plath, 1962).
Despite everything, Plath had an unwavering conviction in her own greatness and by the end of her life, she must have known that the Phoenix inside her had burned its final flame, and its ashes would never be reborn. In her swan song “Ariel,” Plath bequeathed her final flicker to her poetry, evincing her unwavering commitment to her craft and her ineluctable fate for greatness (Plath, 1965).
In summation, Sylvia Plath’s poetry holds an irrepressible fascination for readers, owing to her extraordinary ability to transmute the familiar into the alien, captivating, and mystical. Her proclivity for amplifying our realities and filling the void in our lives further endears her poetry to us. Despite the criticisms of her personal life, Plath’s devotion to her craft and her manifest destiny for greatness remain a testament to her talent and legacy.
_____________
Plath, S. (1962). Lady Lazarus. In Ariel (pp. 32–33). New York: Harper & Row Publishers.
Plath, S. (1965). Ariel. In Ariel (pp. 18–19). New York: Harper & Row Publishers.
