Even the sun-clouds this morning cannot manage such skirts.
Nor the woman in the ambulance
Whose red heart blooms through her coat so astoundingly —-

A gift, a love gift
Utterly unasked for
By a sky

Palely and flamily
Igniting its carbon monoxides, by eyes
Dulled to a halt under bowlers.

O my God, what am I
That these late mouths should cry open
In a forest of frost, in a dawn of cornflowers.

Analysis, meaning and summary of Sylvia Plath's poem Poppies In October

14 Comments

  1. shan khalid says:

    A women on travel to adventure her self

  2. zindgi says:

    She is very complicated woman.this poem shows her love 4 nature and her sadness

  3. maha says:

    sylvia has inspired me . she has beautifully described the complexities of her own life in refrence with poppies.

  4. syeda fatima says:

    the title of the poeem shows unussal happend and her wishes which canot full fild becz poppies are not the flower of october and poppies color are red which is at the time show red color for love and the danger its mean she is happy but the same time she had a complexity or a danger feelings.. and the women in ambulance shows the pregnent women also the blooming heart shows her countless wishes which is bloom and soon burst and may b cant full fil becs the wishes burst shows her death..

  5. arooba khan says:

    it is a best work and a most complicated masterpiece of a crazy woman…

  6. Bilal says:

    the poetry of sylvia is very complex and personal.it seems that she has a thirst of love from the male society but she was ignored all the time,according to me every human being is thirsty for love by his/her birth.but she could not bear the ignorance of the male(father,brother,husband) and she passed her life in thirst for love.so whenever she feel happy at the same time she feel very fearful,because she consider that this happiness is impermanent.which we find in her poetry.

  7. SIDRA RANA says:

    IT IS A NICE POEM ABOUT FEMINISM,SO I LIKE IT.GOOD WORK OF A CRAZY WOMEN.

  8. iqra.shahzadi says:

    poppies in october is a very sweet poem of Sylvia plath.if you go through,and keenly observe her poerty,you will see a fear and complexty in her whole poetry.she is very complex in her views a common reader cannot understand her ideas.1 more importent thing that she alwys supports”fiminisim”.now this poem shows her happy mood.Nature is so beautiful for her she takes ordenery flowers and gives them extraordinary importance.she wants to gives us a lesson that we should always try to get hapenes from little things because you never know when your life might end.

  9. Zeeshan says:

    The poem is a queer mixture of subjectivity and objectivity in an unconventional idiom,the anti-thetical title sets the tone of whole poem,it is built on ambiguity and like a good work of art leaves us in confusion,it keeps on deconstructing itself,no definite answers it gives,rather in the words of keats,teases us in imagination…

  10. Leila says:

    I have a feeling about this poem. It should be written while she had fainted once, living alone after sepraion from Ted.

    She is talking about the ambulance, the gift (which is dead that she asks for it desparately) and the dull eyes of men under their bowlers …the people who are trying to rescue her

    I maybe absolutely wrong though!

  11. Sabir Tehseen says:

    i like the depth of thought with amazing sensational living emotional characters.

  12. Zobair says:

    Indubitably, Sylvia Plath’s work depicts her whole approach to life and its vitality. Being a staunch supporter of “Feminism” she is status-conscious and has an indignant response toward ‘male-dominated’ society. Although “Popies In October” is not vividly a protest against this culture, it understandably reflects her mental restlessness and agitation as a resultant reciprocation. Self-annihilation, alienation, self-revelation, anxiety, confusion, doubt and ‘wit’, are the most mentionable characteristics of her poetry.

  13. elizabeth says:

    “Poppies in October” is a mixture of beauty, gruesomeness, and admiration. I think it was intended to describe the beauty of poppies, but to also show you that the little things in life are the most beautiful, and Sylvia Plath described them in a bitter sweet way. That is what I got from this poem; a sense of beauty and bitterness that the poppies provided for Plath. To know that she could look at something this simple and write something so exquisite about it, is amazing. She inspires me, just as the poppies inspired her. You should cherish the small things in life, because you never know when your life might end.

  14. ayesha says:

    hi, its nice poem but all her poems not easily understandable.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Do you have any comments, criticism, paraphrasis or analysis of this poem that you feel would assist other visitors in understanding the meaning or the theme of this poem by Sylvia Plath better? If accepted, your analysis will be added to this page of American Poems. Together we can build a wealth of information, but it will take some discipline and determination.