5 tips for writing poetry
If you are new to poetry writing or just need a little mini refresher course to help enhance your current works then this is the place to be! Here, we will review 5 easy tips to write poetry while exploring the works of Sylvia Plath and how she incorporates these elements into her words.
Use vivid and descriptive language to create a sensory experience for the reader. Be sure to utilize metaphor, simile, and symbolism to convey deeper meaning.
Experiment with repetition, alliteration, even consider incorporating elements of onomatopoeia or unique word choices, to create pieces that enhance emotional impact.
Don’t forget to pay attention to rhythm and flow to enhance the cadence of your words and enhance the emotional resonance of your work.
Poetry is constantly happening all around us, it’s important to show vulnerability and honesty in your writing to create a genuine connection with readers. Don’t be afraid to draw on personal experiences and memories for authenticity and emotional depth.
You can always experiment with unconventional or unexpected poetic forms or structures to evoke big feelings and convey themes in a fresh and innovative way.
Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy" uses vivid images and evokes heavy emotions through its intense and vivid language, as well as the powerful themes of loss, trauma, and unresolved anger. The components of a strong thought-provoking and emotionally captivating poem engage any of the five senses to form mental pictures, particularly through vivid or metaphorical language to symbolize concepts, objects, or events.
“You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.
Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time——
Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one gray toe”
Throughout the poem, Plath uses striking imagery to convey the speaker's complex emotions towards her father. For example, she describes her father as a "black shoe" and herself as a "foot," highlighting the oppressive and suffocating nature of their relationship. Plath also uses powerful metaphors to convey the speaker's feelings of entrapment and helplessness, such as comparing her father to a "Nazi" and herself to a "Jew."
The poem touches on imagery, structure and form, metaphors, and emotions evoked from personal experiences. Plath has an incredible ability to grapple complex emotions through evocative descriptive language. In the poem “Daddy”, she expresses her anger towards her father for abandoning her and leaving her to deal with the aftermath of his actions. It’s powerful language and themes of loss, trauma, and unresolved anger. The poem's intense and evocative portrayal of the speaker's complex emotions towards her father creates a deeply emotional and haunting reading experience.
Explore entire poem below - “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath
You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.
Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time——
Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one gray toe
Big as a Frisco seal
And a head in the freakish Atlantic
Where it pours bean green over blue
In the waters off beautiful Nauset.
I used to pray to recover you.
Ach, du.
In the German tongue, in the Polish town
Scraped flat by the roller
Of wars, wars, wars.
But the name of the town is common.
My Polack friend
Says there are a dozen or two.
So I never could tell where you
Put your foot, your root,
I never could talk to you.
The tongue stuck in my jaw.
It stuck in a barb wire snare.
Ich, ich, ich, ich,
I could hardly speak.
I thought every German was you.
And the language obscene
An engine, an engine
Chuffing me off like a Jew.
A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen.
I began to talk like a Jew.
I think I may well be a Jew.
The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna
Are not very pure or true.
With my gipsy ancestress and my weird luck
And my Taroc pack and my Taroc pack
I may be a bit of a Jew.
I have always been scared of you,
With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.
And your neat mustache
And your Aryan eye, bright blue.
Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You——
Not God but a swastika
So black no sky could squeak through.
Every woman adores a Fascist,
The boot in the face, the brute
Brute heart of a brute like you.
You stand at the blackboard, daddy,
In the picture I have of you,
A cleft in your chin instead of your foot
But no less a devil for that, no not
Any less the black man who
Bit my pretty red heart in two.
I was ten when they buried you.
At twenty I tried to die
And get back, back, back to you.
I thought even the bones would do.
But they pulled me out of the sack,
And they stuck me together with glue.
And then I knew what to do.
I made a model of you,
A man in black with a Meinkampf look
And a love of the rack and the screw.
And I said I do, I do.
So daddy, I’m finally through.
The black telephone’s off at the root,
The voices just can’t worm through.
If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed two——
The vampire who said he was you
And drank my blood for a year,
Seven years, if you want to know.
Daddy, you can lie back now.
There’s a stake in your fat black heart
And the villagers never liked you.
They are dancing and stamping on you.
They always knew it was you.
Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through.
