"How long can I be a wall around my green property?
How long can my hands
Be a bandage to his hurt, and my words
Bright birds in the sky, consoling, consoling?
It is a terrible thing
To be so open: it is as if my heart
Put on a face and walked into the world."
from Sylvia Plath's Three Women
Sylvia attended Smith college, just down the street from my house here in Northampton. Some days - like today, when the humidity brings everything to a heavy and damp stillness - I like to walk the grounds and think of her. Heavy and damp.
(photos) on film with Leica CL | Smith College (p.s) another one of daffodils on my Flickr.
I feel I need to mull all these words over a few times, and then again.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully put.
I love that. "It is as if my heart put on a face and walked into the world." Beautiful!
ReplyDeletewhat a phrase, right?!
DeleteShe changed me. It's because of her, I left home and traveled and dreamed bigger. And then started writing. Beautiful post.
ReplyDeleteTiffany, I didn't really start reading her until this winter break, and I so wished someone would have nudged me toward her when I was in undergrad! A small town girl at private college, dealing with a lot of feelings? she got me!
Delete'put on a face and walk into the world' - can't say more.
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful. Now I've finished university and my reading is my own once more, I'd like to read some Sylvia Plath. Also, just wanted you to know how head over heels I am for your blog. It's so beautiful, and so intelligent. I love it. x
ReplyDeletewww.ciderwithrosiebee.blogspot.com
Rosie, I've been enjoying the same luxury, now that summer is (finally!) here. Ms. Sylvia wrote mostly poems, but her one complete novel "The Bell Jar" is so spot on and smart. I read it over winter break and really recommend it. Maggie Gyllenhaal actually just recorded the audio book! Doesn't that sound like a great combination?
DeleteAnd, thank you for your kind words. They mean so much.
I love Sylvia so much. I even have a Sylvia tattoo! I'm currently reading "The Silent Woman, Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes" by Janet Malcolm and it's one of the best books I've read in a long time. I highly recommend it!
ReplyDeleteAmanda, I was a little late to the scene of Sylvia - just having read her for this first time earlier this year. She connected me back to a part of myself that I've (somewhat deliberately) lost as I've grown older - that messy, deep feeling core. For that, I am grateful. Thanks for the biography recommendation, I'd love to know more about her life than the things I've heard in legend. Also, tell me about your tattoo?
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