Edge

Sylvia PlathFiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1965

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Authorial Context: Plath, Mental Health, and Death by Suicide

Plath is a confessional poet, which means her poems—mainly, the poems in Ariel—connect to her life. “Edge” is the last poem Plath wrote before she died by suicide, and the emphasis on death reinforces the link between the poem and Plath. Plath experienced mental health crises throughout her life. She tried to die by suicide when she was at Smith, and after she and Hughes separated, her mental illness returned. In the context of her life, Plath is the dead woman in the poem. She felt the “illusion of Greek necessity” (Line 4) and experienced the deadly fate of tragic Greek heroines like Medea and Antigone. Plath didn’t kill her children, but her children were present in her London apartment when she died. Before she turned on the oven in the kitchen, she left them bread and milk. She then sealed the room with wet towels.

“Edge” and other poems in Ariel turn death into an aestheticized process that makes dying look like a sophisticated art. However, Plath’s letters and other works challenge the mystifying presentation of death. Plath’s novel The Bell Jar displays death as a gory, alienating enterprise. Her letters don’t portray a “perfected” woman (Line 1), but a flawed, distraught person trying to rebuild her life and identity after she separated from Hughes—her “center.”

Literary Context: Confessional Poetry

As the name indicates, confessional poets tend to create poems that divulge sensitive information about their private lives. By reading “Edge” in the confessional context, Plath becomes the speaker and the dead woman, so Plath uses the poem to convey her engagement with death and suicide ideation. Plath was friends with other confessional poets, including Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell. Sexton’s poems link to her experiences with suicide ideation, sex, and mental health. Lowell’s poem reflects his experiences with mental health. In the poem “Home After Three Months Away” (1959), Lowell is the speaker, documenting his return from a psychiatric hospital. In 1959, Sexton and Plath audited a creative writing seminar taught by Lowell at Boston University. Plath was friendly with Sexton but thought her poems were “loose” (Crowther, Gail. “On the Friendship and Rivalry of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton.” Lit Hub, 2021). Plath didn’t identify as a confessional poet, yet people continually place her work within the genre, viewing “Edge” and the poems in Ariel as transcripts of her personal battles.

Not all confessional poetry centers on traumatic content. The 20th-century American poet Allen Ginsberg uses the genre to depict his euphoric experiences with drugs and sex. The contemporary poet David Trinidad uses the genre to express his love for music and Barbies. The genre isn’t the exclusive domain of anguish and death.