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Comment 53 of 53, added on September 7th, 2009 at 7:05 PM.
To better understand this poem, it is, in my opinion, ideal to know the
myth of Persephone. It backs up the conjecture that this poem is indeed
about different sides of the same woman. The woman inside is Hecate, the
wise crone, and the woman outside is Kore, the young maiden. These two
sides could also be an allusion to Plath herself, who is known to have
struggled between being a mother with responsibility, but being glorified
(the light woman), or being a writer with freedom, but being seen as having
achieved nothing (the dark woman). It ultimately shows them both ending in
the same manner: death and bitterment.
Hannah from United States
Comment 52 of 53, added on September 4th, 2009 at 2:22 PM.
I definitely believe this poem reflects both sides of Plath. The first
sister working on math is the side of her who values her virginity.
However, if she never finds a partner, society sees her body as a waste.
She did not do her job as a woman, even though she argued throughout her
life that she should be free to experience sex just like any man. The
second sister becomes pregnant and possibly married. However, the poem
says that she's "bitter and sallow." This leads us to believe that she is
not truly happy. I think that this reflects Plath's views on society and
how they see women or maybe Plath herself. I get the feeling that she
feels no matter what she does, she can't make anyone happy. If she does
not have sex, her body is wasteful according to society. If she enjoys
herself, she isn't happy either because of the consequences that go with
it.
Leandra Holmes from United States
Comment 51 of 53, added on September 4th, 2009 at 2:27 PM.
When reading the poem i quickly caught onto the idea of "light" and the
"dark" girl. Both girls live are explained throughout; the dark girl is
shriveled and works endlessly on a math problem. The other girl however,
spends a life of happiness and joy as it mentions she may be pregnant (the
latter grows quick with seed). The line, "bronzed as earth, the second
lies,..." describes the light girl as beautiful and darker skinned as she
may have more exposure to the sun. I think that both women are character
descriptions of Sylvia herself. She is a person who alternates between
happy sad, happy sad, and so on. She seems to explain her happiness that
is constantly foiled by heartache and loss.
Zach from United States
Comment 50 of 53, added on September 4th, 2009 at 2:23 PM.
This poem is beautifully written as well as a directly based writing upon
her emotions and mentality. The two sisters: it is obvious their physical
being and opposite coexistence, however it can be considered as Plath's
struggles in comparison to being a mother and being a writer. Also can
result in what she wants to be and who is she is currently. A large
portion of the poem is an allegory- meaning it has another meaning than its
physical statement. How we perceive the poem is upon our own opinions- but
consider this!
Megan Jackson from United States
Comment 49 of 53, added on September 4th, 2009 at 1:50 PM.
Was this announced that we had to post something?
I believe this poem is about two different sides to plath, a dark side and
a light side. She cant have both at the same time and how the two sides are
constantly switching ack and forth between which one is evident. I also be
lieve that the end of the poem (Worm-husbanded) is talking about how her
husband was lame and they never got a divorce so he was "dead flesh" and
sort of just there.
Jonathan Vailes
Comment 48 of 53, added on September 4th, 2009 at 8:59 AM.
reading through the poem for the first time, i didn't really understand
what was being said. but the second time around with my classmates it
started to make me sense to me. the light and dark imagery set the story up
for it's meaning. the light sister and the dark sister are two very
differnt sisters. one is alone in the house that lives by her self as she
grows up. the light sister is a beautiful happy girl who has children but
then turns bitter afterwards, like the darker sister.
sara from United States
Comment 47 of 53, added on September 3rd, 2009 at 11:54 PM.
there are two very differnt sisters in this poem. they are reffered to as
the light and dark sister the dark sister is ugly and not getting much out
of life, the light sister is more free spireted kind of like kora. she is
persephone's other half. the dark siste dies a virgin and has a bad
husband.the light sister has kids but she too becomes bitter once she has
them
robert c from United States
Comment 46 of 53, added on September 3rd, 2009 at 3:43 PM.
i read this poem for an assignment at first and didn't understand it at all
but after going through deciphering with the class I have a better
understanding of it. it sould be taken in two ways. there's the more
literal meaning of two sisters that are totally different and the more
figurative meaning that it is describing the two parts of her. the literal
describes the two sisters using many contrasts and imagery to help us
visualize them. the figurative leads you; to think that it can be about her
beacuse it talks a lot about giving things up and being torn between two
places in her life. it seems as if she is describing the pressure that she
felt in life.
JoAnn from United States
Comment 45 of 53, added on June 14th, 2009 at 6:09 AM.
I interpreted this as a poem about Sylvia's manic depression. The use of
Persephone, the goddess of fertility bound by two worlds, is a great
metaphor for Sylvia, a woman bound by the troubles of being a woman, and
the delight of being a mother.
Like the seasons change, so do her emotions. Except not monthly, but
"daylong". More so, the idea of how Persephone was stricken from her
comfortable life on earth every six months can speak for the recurring
theme of Sylvias struggle between being a mother, and being a writer.
However you can't say whether being a mother, or being a writer was her
hell so to speak. Rather, both of them were. The fact that she had to
choose was her nightmare.
Cameron Matamua from New Zealand
Comment 44 of 53, added on May 24th, 2007 at 8:21 PM.
Plaths peom of "Two Sisters of Persephone" describe the two sides of
Perspehone from the Greek mythology. We know from the mythological story
that Hades, god of the underworld and the dead, had taken Persephone down
to his dark world. Pershpones mother had begged Hades to give her back her
daughter and Zeus made them compromise, Hades would get Persephone half of
the year and her mother, Demeter, would get her the other half of the year.
While Persephone was with her mother she was happy and so the earth went
through spring and summer, but while she went to the dark underwold with
Hades, Persephone was sad and gloomy and so we have winter, when the earth
is cold and barren. Plaths poem makes and allusion to this myth in that she
uses dichotomies to describe the two sides of Persephone through two
sisters.
One interesting thing about Plaths writing is that she uses enjambment in
her writing, in the first stanza of this poem get an introduction to the
"two sisters" and then she goes into the first sister without the use of
punctuation. The first sister is described as "shade" (line 3) and being in
a dark place so right away we see that this is making a refrence to winter
and the time Persphone spends with Hades.
The second sister is describes as "light" (line 3), "bronzed as the earth"
(line 13), and "sun's bride" (line 21) and that makes a refrence that this
is Perspehone when she is with her mother and so she is a metaphor for
spring.
Jamie Islas (Curie HS Student) from United States
This poem has been commented on more than 10 times. Click below to see the other comments.
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To better understand this poem, it is, in my opinion, ideal to know the
myth of Persephone. It backs up the conjecture that this poem is indeed
about different sides of the same woman. The woman inside is Hecate, the
wise crone, and the woman outside is Kore, the young maiden. These two
sides could also be an allusion to Plath herself, who is known to have
struggled between being a mother with responsibility, but being glorified
(the light woman), or being a writer with freedom, but being seen as having
achieved nothing (the dark woman). It ultimately shows them both ending in
the same manner: death and bitterment.
Hannah from United States