Sign Inventory, Week 4

Edge
-Syliva Plath

*The poem is written in short, violently enjambed couplets.

*There is a volley of images and words that suggest a tension between releasing and coiling: flows in the scrolls of her toga, each dead child coiled, a white serpent, she has folded, stiffens, etc.

*Images of once living giving elements are mentioned as dead or empty: a dead woman and an empty milk pitcher.

*There are numerous ambiguious accomplishments and ownerships: smile of accomplishment (of what?), we have come this far (how far?), the moon has nothing to be sad about, She is used to this sort of thing (what sort of thing?), her blacks crackle and drag.

*Known and unknown objects are personified: blacks crackle and drag, the sweet, deep throats of the night flower, feet can speak of distance, etc.

*Children become white serpents, pitchers of milk, and petals from a rose.

*Greece and allusions to Greek culture appears as illusionary.

*The moon is gendered as female.

*Lines volley from short: Her dead--to--body wears the smile of accomplishment. There is also a tension between line lengths.

*The two shortest lines refer to the "perfected woman" in the poem: "Her dead" and "Her bare".