Sylvia Plath

Writing Prompt Wednesday: What is your literary inspiration?

I think my passion for Sylvia Plath began sometime in high school when I read The Bell Jar. Maybe I liked her so much because I had someone to relate to, someone else who was dark and questioned everything. I thought she was beautiful and fragile and heartbreaking. I wanted to be a fly on the wall just watching her live. I wished she could be my friend when I was in college because sometimes I felt too so misunderstood and alone.

For my Modern Poetry class we got to pick a poet to research and of course I picked Plath. The entire semester I absorbed her so much it was like I embodied her for a while. I wrote a lot of poetry during that time and had a lot of self-reflection. I did not, however, attempt suicide. If she were still alive would her work mean as much, would she have faded away? I guess I’ll never know but none of her work ever gets old.


  1. duane

    December 7, 2005 at 11:35 am

    Did you see the movie Sylvia with Gwenyth Paltrow. Depressing!

  2. Robin

    December 7, 2005 at 11:40 am

    Yeah I did and it was sad however the movie disappointed me. I think someone else (other than Ms. Paltrow) would have done a better job.

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