Poem Analysis: 'Elm' by Sylvia Plath
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Questions and Answers

What does the phrase 'for something to love' suggest about human nature?

  • Humans are desperate for connection and affection (correct)
  • Humans are selfish and only care about themselves
  • Humans are disinterested in others
  • Humans are inherently evil

    • What does the 'soft, feathery turnings' in the poem suggest about depression?

  • It is a violent and aggressive force
  • It is a gentle and soothing force
  • It is a slow and insidious force (correct)
  • It is a non-existent force

    • What is the effect of the repetition in the final two stanzas of the poem?

  • It emphasises the speaker's confusion and disorientation
  • It emphasises the speaker's hope and optimism
  • It emphasises the speaker's anger and frustration
  • It emphasises the speaker's despair and hopelessness (correct)

    • What is the significance of the tree's 'snaky acids' in the poem?

    <p>It symbolises the speaker's inner ugliness and destructive nature</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the effect of the speaker's merge of voices in the final two stanzas?

    <p>It creates a sense of confusion and ambiguity</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the tone of the elm tree in the first stanza?

    <p>Malicious and menacing</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the effect of the moon's radiance on the speaker?

    <p>It scathes and burns her</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the struggle between the tree and the moon akin to?

    <p>The internal struggle within oneself</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does the speaker feel like after letting the moon go?

    <p>Broken and violated</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the significance of the 'psychic landscape' in the poem 'Elm'?

    <p>It is a metaphor for the speaker's mental state</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the purpose of the elm tree as a character in the poem 'Elm'?

    <p>To give a voice to the speaker's inner thoughts and emotions</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Study Notes

    Poem Analysis: "Elm" by Sylvia Plath

    Themes and Ideas

    • Depression
    • Mental Health / Anxiety
    • Psychic Landscape
    • The importance of communication

    Style

    • Personification of the elm tree
    • An imagined, psychic landscape
    • Sound effects (sibilance in particular)
    • Repetition
    • Provocative imagery (visual, kinesthetic, auditory)
    • Imagery from the natural world (elm tree, moon, sea, wind)
    • Figurative language (wind as a metaphor for Plath's depression)

    Key Quotes and Analysis

    • "I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root: / It is what you fear. I do not fear it: I have been there."
      • The elm tree understands suffering, "the bottom," right to its core
    • "Is it the sea you hear in me, / Its dissatisfactions? Or the voice of nothing, that was your madness?"
      • Aural imagery, assonance, and sibilance create an uncomfortable atmosphere
    • "Love is a shadow. / How you lie and cry after it / Listen: these are its hooves: it has gone off, like a horse."
      • The girl is mocked for mourning her lost happiness
    • "All night I shall gallop thus, impetuously, / Till your head is a stone, your pillow a little turf, / Echoing, echoing."
      • Plath portrays a striking depiction of how a person's inner-most thoughts and fears can consume and destroy them
    • "Or shall I bring you the sound of poisons? This is rain now, this big hush. / And this is the fruit of it: tin-white, like arsenic."
      • The mood shifts suddenly, with the tree wondering if it should let the girl listen to the sound of poisons
    • "I have suffered the atrocity of sunsets. / Scorched to the root / My red filaments burn and stand, a hand of wires."
      • The tree's tone changes, becoming more empathetic
    • "Now I break up into pieces that fly about like clubs. / A wind of such violence / Will tolerate no bystanding: I must shriek."
      • Depression is like the wind, causing violence and discomfort
    • "The moon, also, is merciless: she would drag me / Cruelly, being barren. / Her radiance scathes me."
      • The moon's radiance hurts, suggesting an emptiness
    • "I let her go. / I let her go / Diminished and flat, as after radical surgery."
      • The struggle between the tree and the moon is akin to internal struggle
    • "I am inhabited by a cry. / Nightly it flaps out / Looking, with its hooks, for something to love."
      • The tree is inhabited by a cry, symbolizing an aspect of depression
    • "I am terrified by this dark thing / That sleeps in me; / All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity."
      • The tactile image reveals an uncomfortable portrayal of mental suffering
    • "Clouds pass and disperse. / Are those the faces of love, those pale irretrievables? / Is it for such I agitate my heart?"
      • Natural landscape allows Plath to showcase her feelings of being cut off from everything around her
    • "I am incapable of more knowledge. / What is this, this face / So murderous in its strangle of branches? / Its snaky acids hiss. / It petrifies the will."
      • The final two stanzas merge the voices, making it difficult to tell who is speaking
      • The repetition of "kill" emphasizes the destructive nature of depression

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    Description

    An analysis of Sylvia Plath's poem 'Elm', exploring themes of depression, mental health, and the importance of communication, as well as stylistic devices such as personification and imagery. Analyze quotes and literary techniques used in the poem.

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