Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plathwas one of the most renowned and influential poets, novelists, and short story writers of the 20th century. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College at the University of Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a poet and writer. She was married to fellow poet Ted Hughes from 1956 until they separated in September of 1962. They lived together in the United States and then the United Kingdom and had two children, Frieda and Nicholas...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth27 October 1932
CountryUnited States of America
I suppose if I gave myself the chance I could be an alcoholic.
Let me not be weak and tell others how bleeding I am internally; how day by day it drips, and gathers, and congeals.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter - - - for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.... Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And I identify too closely with my reading, with my writing.
But everybody has exactly the same smiling frightened face, with the look that says: "I'm important. If you only get to know me, you will see how important I am. Look into my eyes. Kiss me, and you will see how important I am.
How many different deaths I can die?
And so I rehabilitate myself - staying up late this Friday night in spite of vowing to go to bed early, because it is more important to capture moments like this, keen shifts in mood, sudden veering of direction - than to lose it in slumber.
God, it was good to let go, let the tight mask fall off, and the bewildered, chaotic fragments pour out. It was the purge, the catharsis.
I felt the mask crumple, the great poisonous store of corrosive ashes begin to spew out of my mouth.
Masks are the order of the day - and the least I can do is cultivate the illusion that I am gay, serene, not hollow and afraid.
A skeptic, I would ask for consistency first of all.
I wanted to be where nobody I knew could ever come.
I'm never going to get married." "You're crazy." Buddy brightened. "You'll change your mind." "No. My mind's made up.
If I was going to fall, I would hang on to my small comforts, at least, for as long as I possibly could.