Better that every fiber crack
and fury make head,
blood drenching vivid
couch, carpet, floor
and the snake-figured almanac
vouching you are
a million green counties from here,

than to sit mute, twitching so
under prickling stars,
with stare, with curse
blackening the time
goodbyes were said, trains let go,
and I, great magnanimous fool, thus wrenched from
my one kingdom.

Analysis, meaning and summary of Sylvia Plath's poem Monologue At 3 AM

3 Comments

  1. Joy says:

    That was a lovely comment, Elizabeth. Plath has the ability to capture vivid images in a few simple lines. Her words reflect the violent passion of her emotions…that is why they are so great. love the last lines where she laments the futility of her magnanimty.

  2. Elizabeth Rex says:

    Plath’s style can almost identify with surrealists (i.e. Nin) in the sense that there are so few times when a woman reads something- and you actually feel some sort of spiritual connection with what you are reading. The feminine psyche is that of misunderstanding. Plath is one of the very few who woman can fully identify with, without having to throw her true identity or morals away. It isnt about fantasizing with her- it is about the truest and most raw form of female emotion. Whether it be “dramatic”, or just plain negitive; The female species is all ecompassing and so are these works. I hope this has touched another in the way it has saved me.

  3. acuo says:

    alphabetically lousy
    to be among South
    Africa and Sri
    Lanka in the
    least

    good poem
    good sickness

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