HISTORY OF AMERICAN AND BRITISH LITERATURE

“The fortitude of finding freedom of woman’s life in poetry Lady Lazarus by Sylvia
Plath and Planetarium by Adrienne Rich”

BY:

DILLA APRI GUSTI (16019004)

UNIVERSITAS NEGERI PADANG

FAKULTAS BAHASA DAN SENI

2019
1. INTRODUCTION
This article is going to talk about finding the freedom of women’s life through two

poems by different author. The first author is Sylvia Path and the second one is Adrienne

Rich. The literary works of American literature embraces a number of subjects and motifs

due to the cultural enrichment of the society itself. The diversity of nations is accepted as

something peculiar to the American society since all the people under the name of America

bring their subject matters, styles and perspectives together with them to the literature as

well. Since it is widely accepted that literature is the reflection of real life, it lets us believe

that the cultural, ethnic and social background of the writers and poets can easily be traced

in literary works. The background of the both author will be described here.

First, Sylvia Plath was an American poet best known for her novel The Bell Jar,

and for her poetry collections The Colossus and Ariel. Second, Adrienne Rich is a

contemporary feminist poet who is referred as one of the most widely read and influential

poets of late 20th century. She has many well-known poems touching overlooked topics

and depicting the image of woman in American society. She is a skillful observer and a

good example of intellectual woman type for her time.

Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of

language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in

addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning. Poetry uses forms and

conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses.

Devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to

achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other

stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations.

Similarly, figures of speech such as metaphor, simile and metonymy create a resonance
 between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections

previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individual

verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm. During the history of U.S. poetry, there is one

term that called contemporary Poetry. And this paper is trying to explore the part of

contemporary America poetry and matching the characteristic of this kind of poem with

the real literary work.

Contemporary poetry is most often written in free verse (unrhymed lines). The lines

follow the natural rhythms of the language and not the strict five stresses per line in iambic

pentameter. It is written in language that is accessible to the common reader. Contemporary

poetry suggests ideas rather than overtly stating ideas. It is brief in comparison to traditional

poetry. Contemporary poetry is grounded in the image. It invites the reader to complete

statements, offer conclusions, and extract meaning. The meaning of the contemporary

poem exists more in the mind of the reader than in accessing the mind of the poet.

2. DISCUSSION

Both poem shows about how women struggle to find their own freedom and

becomes great by standing for herself. This paper will show how they face the society to

seek for their own live. The speaker of both poem is women. The tone of both poems are

spirit, anger and strength. She wants to show the world that she deserve better life. Even

she has to pass the difficult time. In the poetry “Lady Lazarus” shows that the speaker

doing something great for her life. It seems that she has passed through very difficult time

in her life. However, she can survive and strong enough to show that she is capable. It can

be seen in the following stanza. This stanza reveal by Imagery that vividly describe.
 “I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it——

A sort of walking miracle, my skin

Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot

A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.” (stanza 1-3)
This stanza explains how strong her power to struggle by the hard situation. From that

stanza shows how she show the world that what she has been through. From the sentence

“I manage it” means that something is under her control. She struggle for that to make it

work. By comparing parts of her own self to these, she achieves two thing. She successfully

victimizes herself by equating herself with the Jews, and portrays herself as a fragmented,

dead corpse who is being used by other people symbolized by the Nazis. It is represent

about how the system of patriarchy handle the women. In other word, they make rules for

women how they should be look, behave and even what should they do or not. The system

try to implant their thought as if women can assume that their rules are right. However, the

speaker of this poetry try to refuse that system and show this is her. She comfortable with

how does she look. No one can compare her. From this poetry also shows that the speaker

consider men as their enemy. It can be seen in the following stanza.

“Peel off the napkin

O my enemy.
Do I terrify?” (Stanza 4)
Here she directly addresses the reader as her “enemy”. By asking us to “peel off the

napkin”, she furthers the assumption that she is already dead and as is usually the case with
dead bodies, is covered with a sheet. “Do I terrify?” is almost a rhetorical question due to

the grotesque imagery of a corpse that follows in the next target.

In poetry “Planetarium” also shows about the system of patriarchy look her as a

women. They assume that women need protection. They also thought that women are

weak. However, in this poem overthrow the assumption. It can be seen in the following

stanza.

“A woman in the shape of a monster

a monster in the shape of a woman
the skies are full of them” (stanza 1)
The patriarchy that assume women are weak has been thrown by the stanza. The speaker

proof that women are not weak. They are great and amazing. From the sentence “A women

in the shape of a monster” means that women are strong. They can be a monster which

means sometime can cause fear for their enemy. Thus, if the system keep assume they are

weak and have to follow the rule the system made, they will show who truly they are.

According to Langdell(2004) The relation between monster and woman may refer to; "in

the earlier centuries in the South decent, well-bred, upper-middle-class women were not

encouraged to have careers- indeed, a woman who tried to work was often deemed

monster-an unfeminine harpy." (cited by article: The Mythical Female Figure In

Planetarium by Ayşe EkiciIn). In other words, when woman does not fit to the societal

expectations placed on her gender, people might label her as ‘monster’ or ‘mad’. A woman

who expresses her opinions through writing is “scarcely less offensive...than monsters”.

(Edgeworth, 106) In other words, the female is displayed as dangerous when she does not

conform to the assumptions of the society.

 Another quotation in “Lady Lazarus” show about their struggle to fight the system

by showing she is still comfortable with her appearance even society called it worse or

ugly. It can be seen in the following stanza.

“The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?

The sour breath
Will vanish in a day

Soon, soon the flesh

The grave cave ate will be
At home on me

And I a smiling woman.” (stanza 5-6)

This stanza explain she will turn to be comfortable with her own self. She should be proud

that she can make it. Resurrection by the flesh coming back to her bones and the vanishing

of the sour breath associated with her rotting carcass. However, it could also refer to her

final decay, with her becoming more comfortable and “at home” with her decaying self.

Another quotation that also supported about how she starts to feel comfortable with

herself also can be seen in poetry “Planetarium”. It can be seen in the following stanza.

“Heartbeat of the pulsar

heart sweating through my body
The radio impulse
pouring in from Taurus” (STANZA 14-15)
This stanza shows that she gives the feminine moon in advance, she juxtaposes it with the

male "Taurus" which created the world through light, blood and radio wave. "The battery
of signals" is the male codes. She has to encounter all through her life and the ones she

cannot load meaning but try to stand against. The speaker feels comfortable to her body.

She assumes that she can also shine like a sun. To be remember when she shines, she will

shine alone by herself.

The speaker seems to be plotting her revenge from here onwards. “There is a

charge”, for “eyeing her scars, hearing of her heart, charge, a very large charge for a word,

touch or bit of blood.” The strip tease image of the charge is a mode of payback for the

crowd. This sudden tone of seriousness tells us that she no more wants to be an immature

person. She between the brink of a massive breakdown and an evolution to someone fierce.

Again she comes back to the holocaust imagery, the obscure metaphors. The source domain

bring to mind the indescribable human suffering. She addresses the “doktor, enemy, god,

Lucifer’ to “beware”.”I turn and burn” hints us that she is on her way to becoming a demon.

“Out of the ash

I rise with my red hair

And I eat men like air”(Last Stanza)

These lines tie all the loose ends of the poem. It is also proof she will rise and be

great person in the world. Red here symbolizes ultimate rage. The speaker realise that all

her enemies previously mentioned were men. The doctor was particularly her enemy,

because he kept bringing her back to life even when she wished for death. So now that she

is a forceful demon, she will eat all the men or enemies like air, ultimately to come out of

their shadow and do as she desires. She represents herself as a Phoenix. Just like the

Phoenix, when burnt alive can reborn in the ashes, so does she. The allusion to phoenix is
 also a resurrection to something even more powerful and mightier than ever. It means that

she will grow as women who make all of people amaze because of her.

In poetry “Planetarium” also shows about how she will rise and become a great

women one day. It can be seen in the following Stanza.

I am a galactic cloud so deep

so involuted
that a light wave could take 15
years to travel through me And has
taken I am an instrument in the shape
of a woman trying to translate pulsations
into images for the relief of the body
and the reconstruction of the mind.” (Last Stanza)
From this stanza the speaker try to convince that she will be great. In order to make

people difficult to get her. The reason why she chooses an astronomical sphere for her

poem might be the limitlessness of the space. She tries to get rid of all the heavenly

boundaries in order to set a true identity for herself. The speaker tries to get over the

boundaries between men and women. If men will grow be a great person and women can

be that too. She can also has career, their own life and family that she wanted.

3. Conclusion

In conclusion, this paper shows about how women struggle to get their right. It

means like gender equality that should women have. They will fight for that until they get

that. Not only fight, they also show it and let the world know they deserve it. . It is

possible to infer that female figures have been and are in an ongoing fight against
patriarchal standards. Since being successful and accomplishing are seen as the rights for

men, the intellectual female figures stand of strive for gaining what men already have.

She shows that they can also have it.