First, are you our sort of a person?
Do you wear
A glass eye, false teeth or a crutch,
A brace or a hook,
Rubber breasts or a rubber crotch,
Stitches to show something's missing? No, no? Then
How can we give you a thing?
Stop crying.
Open your hand.
Empty? Empty. Here is a hand
To fill it and willing
To bring teacups and roll away headaches
And do whatever you tell it.
Will you marry it?
It is guaranteed
To thumb shut your eyes at the end
And dissolve of sorrow.
We make new stock from the salt.
I notice you are stark naked.
How about this suit——
Black and stiff, but not a bad fit.
Will you marry it?
It is waterproof, shatterproof, proof
Against fire and bombs through the roof.
Believe me, they'll bury you in it.
Now your head, excuse me, is empty.
I have the ticket for that.
Come here, sweetie, out of the closet.
Well, what do you think of that?
Naked as paper to start
But in twenty-five years she'll be silver,
In fifty, gold.
A living doll, everywhere you look.
It can sew, it can cook,
It can talk, talk, talk.
It works, there is nothing wrong with it.
You have a hole, it's a poultice.
You have an eye, it's an image.
My boy, it's your last resort.
Will you marry it, marry it, marry it.
What a wild poem. Will you marry it?
ReplyDeleteI've revisited this poem often. And my initial impression through each reading is that it reminds of the dialogue of C.S. Lewis' character, Scewtape, a "senior demon" in The Screwtape Letters as he discusses demon policy with his nephew, Wormwood, who is a "demon in training".
ReplyDeleteIn a sense, I wonder if this depicts somewhat of an afterlife view for Sylvia Plath? It feels like a look of death from another angle that we don't often think about. The "Applicant" of Death, essentially....?? How our body parts and holes and the clothes we will by buried in look from the eyes of an afterlife.
The phrase, "Will you marry it?", I am unsure of. A, perhaps, acceptance of some kind of the idea of transitioning to death in all of the different ways that it can occur. Plath's famous list-like scenarios that she has become so well-known for.
(Note: pg. 4-5 in the hardcopy of Ariel)
I read at least one interpretation as marriage.
DeleteI like that connection with Screwtape. And I didn't consider death when I read it. Lady Lazarus mention the Devil and God. If we pair this poem with Lady Laz, who is interviewing the applicant here? God? Satan? Demon or angel?
Once I get something in my mind anything can look like it! Marriage, yes...wow! The standard vows and what they may look like through time...The APplicant- husband/wife...how very ODD, Yes- it is said that her marriage with Ted Hughes was quite, well, something else. Which leads one to question its origin- the mockery, almost, of an arrangement with the Demon himself. How is she so calm with these ideas?! Just terrific.
DeleteHer ideas do not read calm to me. Even her voice, it feels more demanding. Are you listening to her red them? That is a nice addition for some of her poems we read previously.
DeleteYes, quite demanding. But what I think I love most about her is that she demands SOMETHING out of life, you know....she demands it to speak back to her- to give her a WHY that she never did receive. But there is fire there...remains of curiosity and inquisition. She reminds me a lot of Ayn Rand. Bull headed and strong willed...yet sometimes, no matter what they have decided to be strong about, there is the admiration of WILL!!! If we had half of the demand she has for anything...we may be well off, at least in something.
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