Sylvia Plath's Poetry and The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar is a book I'm reading in my creative writing class, by Sylvia Plath. So far, I'm on chapter two The book hasn't done a good job of drawing me in so far, but from the description on the back of the book I'm interested in seeing how this innocent contest winner descends into madness. That should be very interesting.


I have also read some of Plath's poetry. I like how she can construct a dark poem without making it cliche. The descriptive words she uses make the poem feel like a metaphorical setting that represents the world we live in, but may not feel. Unlike many other poets, she doesn't quite acknowledge the tone of the poem as "dark" and "depressing". Rather, I feel she treats the state of mind in her works as normal.

Unsettling America: English Speaking Persons Will Find Translations

This is a poem I read by Michael S. Glaser. It tells of his modern day tour of a Concentration Camp in Dachau, and what he sees while he's there. His view of the camp and most tourists is somewhat ironic, for he sees the destruction of this establishment as a victory for America despite the similar acts of cruelty we have done (From killing and outlawing Native Americans, to bombing Hiroshima to stop WW2). The title of this poem is named after how the tours often translate the museum exhibits into English, but has a symbolic meaning in how the author translates the reality of the past events that we often only see from one perspective. This poem used simple diction, but was to-the-point and had capturing imagery. I enjoyed it.