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.