Poets | Bookstore | Poem of the Day | Top 40 | Search | Comments | Privacy
May 25th, 2013 - we have 234 poets, 8,025 poems and 56,671 comments.
Sylvia Plath - Paralytic

It happens. Will it go on? ----
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 anonymous
Talkers: '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 clear
Cellophane I cannot crack.
On my bare back

I smile, a buddha, all
Wants, desire
Falling from me like rings
Hugging their lights.

The claw
Of the magnolia,
Drunk on its own scents,
Asks nothing of life.

Share |

Added: Feb 20 2003 | Viewed: 14984 times | Comments and analysis of Paralytic by Sylvia Plath Comments (5)

Paralytic - Comments and Information

Poet: Sylvia Plath
Poem: Paralytic
Volume: The Collected Poems
Year: Published/Written in 1963

Comment 5 of 5, added on August 1st, 2012 at 2:26 PM.
Poetry

The world is receding from the poetess , and she is perplexed and confused with the running adjustments of her fellow comrades . No where she can anchor her faith and feels sorrowfully disgusted .

Subrata Ray from India
Comment 4 of 5, added on August 21st, 2011 at 8:11 PM.
obviously its depressing

To Mr. Cooper from the US, obviously its a depressing poem. The poem was about her imminent suicide. Kudos to the poem also, its as amazing as a white unicorn. xx

navajo tane from Australia
Comment 3 of 5, added on May 6th, 2009 at 6:30 AM.

'My mind a rock' shows slyvia has lost the will to think and live. She feels trapped in her own mind and has lost all confidence in herself and life.

Linda Frenwick from Canada

Are you looking for more information on this poem? Perhaps you are trying to analyze it? The poem, Paralytic, has received 5 comments. Click here to read them, and perhaps post a comment of your own.

Poem Info

Plath Info
Copyright © 2000-2012 Gunnar Bengtsson. All Rights Reserved. Links | Bookstore