Warm-Up: When you look in the mirror, what “type” of person do you see? Root: Dorm- Meaning: Sleep Example: dormant-to be hidden in sleep

Sylvia Plath “The blood jet is poetry / there is no stopping it.”

A brief biography: childhood Born in Boston on October 27, 1932, to Aurelia Schober and Otto Plath Idolised her father and longed to please him In 1940, when Sylvia was 8, her father died and she published her first poem. Her mother introduced her to poetry which she loved After discovering poetry, Sylvia said I “had fallen into a new way of being happy.”

Sylvia Plath as a young woman At school she was a top student, excelling in English Suffers mental & emotional exhaustion Is rejected for a Harvard writing course First suicide attempt –overdose. Receives electric shock treatment. She writes about these experiences in her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar “I still do not know myself. Perhaps I never will. I am afraid of getting older. I am afraid of getting married…I want, I think, to be omniscient…I think I would like to call myself the girl who wanted to be God.... Never, never, will I reach the perfection I long for with all my soul....” (diary, age 17)

Sylvia goes to England Wins a Fulbright Scholarship to England 1956 She met Ted Hughes, a poet, at a Cambridge University party According to her journal, at this meeting he kissed her and she bit him on the cheek, drawing blood. It was an intense courtship and they were married within months. He was “very simply the only man I’ve ever met whom I could never boss.” (Sylvia to friends)

Motherhood & Writing Her and her husband return to England and begin writing full-time In 1960 Plath had her first child, Frieda, and published her first book of poetry, ‘The Colossus’. In 1962, following a traumatic appendix operation and the birth of their son Nicholas, Plath's writing became more frantic.

Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes Sylvia & Ted’s relationship was passionate and tumultuous She was attracted to his physical power, his way with animals esp owls, his reputation as a poet, and appreciated his encouragement of her poetry She feared losing him 1962 – the beginning of the end June: 2 nd suicide attempt – driving car off the road July: Discovers Ted’s affair with Assia Weevill. Sept: They separate Oct: She writes 26 poems in one month Dec: She takes her 2 children and moves into a maisonette in London She prepares Ariel, a collection of 41 poems

The End: 1963 The Bell Jar is published under a pseudonym and receives good reviews She is depressed, isolated and mentally unstable February 1963, in one of the coldest winters in English history, she succeeded in taking her life Her body was discovered the following morning. She was survived by her 2 children. 1965: Ariel was published she is posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.

“ MIRROR” Written in 1961 but published after her death by her husband 10 years later. It deals with the fear of age and self-reflection: meaning how we see ourselves!!! Literary Device: Personification Poem Type: Lyric

8 th Grade HONORS Answer the following questions in complete sentences by restating the question in the answer. 1.The poet personifies herself as a mirror and lake. What is the effect of using personification as her main tool to tell this poem? Why do you think Plath used the perspectives of the mirror and lake to write this poem? 2. The mirror and lake become characters in the poem. How would you describe them? Cite evidence to support your claim. Specifically look at the figurative language being used and word choice. 3. What is your overall feeling towards the poem? Some say this poem would be different if written by a man; do you agree? Why? 4. How does the simile “Rise toward her day after say, like a terrible fish” work as the completion of the poem?

8 th Grade Questions Answer the following questions in complete sentences by restating the question in the answer. 1. The poet identifies herself as a mirror in the first stanza and a lake in the second stanza. What type of figurative language does she use in both stanzas? Cite evidence of this figurative term. 2. What type of figurative language is used on line five when she describes her eye as “the eye of a little god?” What does that mean to compare her eye to that of a god? 3. In the second stanza, what type of figurative language is being used to compare liars to the candles or moon? What does that mean? 4. What type of figurative language is used in the very last line of the poem? What it mean? 5. What is the effect of Plath's choice to write the poem from a mirror's perspective?