Poppies In October Analysis

The Collected Poems1962Even 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 skyPalely 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.

.: first analysis :.

this is the first analysis ive done, so someone tell me if ive done this right.
Sylvia Plath has been one of the biggest influences on my poetry. her obvious abstractism has captured audience all inspired and motivated by her poetry, either to write better or to simplify her poetic wrap.
Poppies in October. it so happens that october is my birthmonth, and this poem has always since been a favorite of mine. also, poppies are a well known symbol of Rememberance day. the setting can be interpreted in many ways: it can be a woman tending to a patient, or a woman fighting for her life. might be a regular woman and a day unseen by herself. i get the strong feminine impression reading this poem, upon mention of skirts, forests and cornflowers (nature=Mother Nature=female) and a love gift, usually given to women. her hair red, can also be compared to the poppies.
is it a coicidence that the month chosen is prior to the one which poppies reign?

"By a sky, palely and flamily
Igniting its carbon monoxides,"

this section hold a key to the setting presented in the poem. and maybe the emotion conjured in the reader. pollution, obvious pollution created by the overusage of automobiles. Carbon monoxide: toxic (one of the leading causes of lung cancer) and distasteful can be dangerous to all who inhale too much of it, or little bits too often. it is a negative thing, which leads to concluding that this piece has a negative feeling.
emotions such as distress and sadness are important to the sylvia plath poem. most of her poems are based on these 2 easy-to-relate emotions, and loosly on the pleasure it can motivate you to seek and enjoy when you have it.
the most frequent color in here is red. poppies are red, her hair is red, love is associated with red and so is a heart. reds of lighter tones are usually connected with lust, anger and rage, and those deeper reds with love, passion and heat. poppies are of a lighter red: they might represent the anger in the poem, the blood if there is any in the ambulance, etc.
when she speaks of god, and crying in nature, we can say it is His creation, that she is crying out for his creation; bountiful, pleasant and beautiful. she is asking almost for permission to speak and be in the company of beauty.
if we can relate to her knowledge on any level, it would be on the lowest.

| Posted on 2005-08-06 | by JenFlynn