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READ THIS
The poet had come to suffer from what is commonly known as "writer's block" or an inability to write
imaginatively.
She compares herself to a woman who has been pregnant but who keeps giving birth to stillborn children,
which look real enough but which have no life in them whatever.
A NOTE ON THE POET
Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1932.
She was an intelligent child who had her first poem published when she was only eight. She displayed
a marked degree of sensitivity but sought perfection in all that she did.
Her father -- a college professor and a bee expert -- died of an illness when Sylvia was still young. He
apparently thought it was cancer but in reality it was a curable form of diabetes.
His untimely death appears to have scarred the young child's sensitive mind.
She entered Smith College on a scholarship in 1950 and, while there, wrote some 400 poems. During
her first year at the college, however, she attempted suicide through an overdose of sleeping pills.
She graduated from Smith College summa cum laude in 1955 and thereupon won a Fulbright
scholarship to study at Cambridge University in England.
While there, she married the English poet, Ted Hughes. Their marriage, however, would last a mere ten
years before Sylvia found herself divorced.
She was alone once more, but now in a small London flat. She was poor and with two children to look
after.
This was a foreign existence to one who had always been accustomed to the comforts of middle-class
life.
The winter of 1962 to 1963 was one of the coldest, during which time the poet was continually ill with flu.
She learnt first hand much about the harshness of life.
She nevertheless worked furiously in the very early mornings while the children slept, producing a poem
virtually every day.
Towards the end of that winter -- in February 1963 -- she committed suicide by gassing herself in her
kitchen. She was then only 30 years of age.
She had not yet won the recognition she so richly deserved as a poet. Like so many great artists, fame
would follow only after her death.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
Is "Stillborn" a commentary about stillborn children -- or is it a poem about poetry? Explain your
answer carefully. (4)
[Need help?]
Although it seems that Sylvia Plath did indeed have a stillborn child, her poem does not deal with this. No,
she is speaking about her poetry.
The poet was a prolific writer but was also a perfectionist. She was frustrated that so many of her poems,
although technically correct, just did not come to life.
They did not express the intimacies of her soul. They were like stillborn babies, perfect in every way but
nevertheless quite dead.
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These poems do not live: it's a sad diagnosis.
They grew their toes and fingers well enough,
Their little foreheads bulged with concentration.
If they missed out on walking about like people
It wasn't for any lack of mother-love.
- What does the poet mean when she says, "These poems do not live: it's a sad
diagnosis"? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet was a perfectionist and was frustrated that so many of her poems, though technically correct,
just did not come to life.
They did not express the intimacies of her soul. They were like stillborn babies, perfect in every way but
nevertheless quite dead.
This was "a sad diagnosis" for a sensitive person like she, to admit that much of her writing was
quite useless.
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- How could the poems "miss out on walking about like people"? (4)
[Need help?]
This is another way of explaining that the poems in question are quite lifeless. The stillborn foetus is
perfect in every way but there is no life in it.
The poems too, though technically correct, are also dead -- they "miss out on walking about like
people".
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- Why does Sylvia Plath comment, "It wasn't for any lack of mother-love"? (4)
[Need help?]
Sylvia Plath was a perfectionist and also a prolific writer. During her college days, she produced some
400 poems.
While she lived her destitute life in her freezing flat in London in the winter of 1962-3, she still did not
abandon her poetry. Though she had two children to look after and support, she nevertheless devoted
hours each morning to writing.
She was dedicated to the extreme. Indeed, she loved her poetry just as a mother loves her children.
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"They smile and smile and smile at me.
- What is the point of the repetition of the word "smile"? (4)
[Need help?]
The repetition of the word "smile" is to indicate continuation.
The stillborn foetus smiles and smiles and smiles. Indeed, its smile goes on forever. It cannot change
because the foetus is quite dead.
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They are not pigs, they are not even fish,
Though they have a piggy and a fishy air.
- What is the relevance in comparing the stillborn poems to pigs and fish? (4)
[Need help?]
In its early stages, the foetus of most mammals look much the same. So the stillborn foetus could be
human, or it could be a pig or even a fish perhaps.
The comparison, however, produces a moment of hilarity which eases the tension in what could be a
deadly serious poem.
It forces the reader to smile, and perhaps forces a smile from the poet herself -- but, in smiling, the force
of the comparison is driven home.
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- Is the poem a serious comment on the art of writing poetry, or is the poet merely having fun playing
around with words and ideas? (4)
[Need help?]
What do you think? I believe that the poet is being desperately serious here.
Remember that Sylvia Plath was a perfectionist. As such, she desired every poem to work.
She was aware, however, that this was not so. Many poems limp. They are technically quite sound but
there is no soul to them, no life.
Even this very poem -- "Stillborn" -- could be a failure, with no life in it.
The life is engendered by the little moments of fun, the moments when the poet and her readers smile.
In this way, the humour could be the catalyst which brings life to the poem.
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Is the title of this poem a fitting one? Be careful to explain your answer. (6)
[Need help?]
In your answer, you need to connect the idea of poetry that is born dead -- stillborn -- and babies that
are stillborn. You would need to show how both ideas and human life are similar, both creations, but that
both also risk having that little spark of life evaporate.
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