My mind a rock,
No fingers to grip, no tongue,
My god the iron lung
That loves me, pumps
My two
Dust bags in and out,
Will not
Let me
relapse
While the
day outside glides by like ticker tape. The night brings violets,
Tapestries of eyes,
Lights,
The soft
anonymousTalkers: 'You all right?'
The starched, inaccessible breast.
Dead egg, I lie
Whole
On a whole world I cannot touch,
At the white, tight
Drum of my
sleeping couch
Photographs
visit me-My wife, dead and flat, in 1920 furs,
Mouth full of pearls,
Two girls
As flat as
she, who whisper 'We're your daughters.' The still waters
Wrap my lips,
Eyes, nose
and ears,
A clearCellophane I cannot crack.
On my bare back
I smile, a
buddha, all
Wants,
desireFalling from me like rings
Hugging their lights.
The claw
Of the
magnolia,Drunk on its own scents,
Asks nothing of life.
Plath has a history of depression and this poem expresses all her anger and rage towards her failed suicide attempts. In the first stanza she says 'It happens. Will it go on' she could be talking about life and how she has tried taking her own but it failed countlessly so it just continues. 'My mind a rock' could show how much weight and burden is put on her all the time. This means she cannot think straight which contributes to her mental illness. This phrase also links to the title 'Paralytic' as rocks are hard and inanimate objects. It suggests that her body cannot take it anymore and her life has become still as if turned to stone.
ReplyDelete‘Paralytic’ is an immensely powerful poem which explores the disintegration of self in a woman who has attempted suicide, as she awaits the liberation of death. Perhaps the most poignant image in the poem is that of the magnolia, which represents the dying woman as she is transformed from a frantic prisoner of her own body into a natural being of beauty who ‘asks nothing of life’. The harsh image of the ‘claw’, which depicts desperation and survival, is juxtaposed by the soft image of the magnolia, which represents the woman’s physical and mental submission into her ‘own scents’ – death. This flower is a metaphor for a woman consumed by her own desire to die, and romanticizes the concept of death by portraying it as a form of ‘letting go’ or releasing one’s clutch on life (claw); it presents death as a natural and delicate process. This metaphor also conveys a sense of irony, as it is used to depict submission, despite the fact that flowers are usually given to patients by their loved ones in the hopes of their recovery. Through this use of irony, Plath reminds the reader that although the woman may accept her death, her dying will not be painless and blissful as suggested– it will damage those around her. The phrase ‘drunk on its own scents’ reiterates this concept - the woman is intoxicated by her own goal of oblivion, and unaware of the impact this will have on the world she leaves behind.
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