Week 8
1) "Packing for the Future" by Lorna Crozier, "The Writer" by Richard Wilbur and "Miracle" by Harry Thurston display extended usage of metaphors to write about the challenges of life, capturing opportunities and flourishing through life's journey. Crozier writes "Take the thickest socks. Wherever you're going you'll have to walk." She goes on to say "a ball of string to lead you out," and "In your bag leave room for sadness, leave room for another language." Metaphorically, the thickest socks, the ball of string and the bag to leave room for sadness represent strength and resilience with an expectation of challenges to cope through life's journey. Poet Richard Wilbur makes reference to his daughter's "commotion of typewriter-keys Like a chain hauled over a gunwale." He further writes "Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy: I wish her a lucky passage." The writer wishes the best for his daughter knowing she has challenges which are a natural part of life's journey. Thurston's "Miracle" states "not to pick the blossom, explaining that the flower will turn into a strawberry in a few short weeks, then she can pick and eat the sweet fruit." He further writes "No sooner are the words out than I regret forestalling her pleasure- for what is one blossom less, and weeks to a child too long to wait." In reality, the child is the one the blossoms in time guided by strength, resilience and the opportunity to grow and flourish much like Crozier's and Wilbur's dreams for their children, or "take" on life, as well.
2) Sylvia Plath appears to have held a very interesting, short lived life that led to a tragic ending. I find her writing "Daddy" to be quite complex and dark but offering glimpes of her apparent life-long struggle with emotional pain. Some details of the poem and her life are accurate, particularily refering to her father's foot. Her father died when she was 8 of gangrene.However, further details seem somewhat obscured according to other literature on her life and death. Plath may add a dramatic flair to her works, more so in her poem "Daddy." Perhaps she chose to write this way to deal with her pain in a less invasive manner. Winterson wrote "There is no autobiography; there is only art and lies." I feel Plath may have agreed with Winterson to a certain, but not full extent. Plath appeared to have flair for drama and creativity (art),however, her perceptions of her pain no matter how expressed, were evidence of "truth" within her work.
2) Sylvia Plath appears to have held a very interesting, short lived life that led to a tragic ending. I find her writing "Daddy" to be quite complex and dark but offering glimpes of her apparent life-long struggle with emotional pain. Some details of the poem and her life are accurate, particularily refering to her father's foot. Her father died when she was 8 of gangrene.However, further details seem somewhat obscured according to other literature on her life and death. Plath may add a dramatic flair to her works, more so in her poem "Daddy." Perhaps she chose to write this way to deal with her pain in a less invasive manner. Winterson wrote "There is no autobiography; there is only art and lies." I feel Plath may have agreed with Winterson to a certain, but not full extent. Plath appeared to have flair for drama and creativity (art),however, her perceptions of her pain no matter how expressed, were evidence of "truth" within her work.