Sylvia plath's poem purdah plus analysis?

Answer 1

Jade --

Stone of the side,

The antagonized

Side of green Adam, I

Smile, cross-legged,

Enigmatical,

Shifting my clarities.

So valuable!

How the sun polishes this shoulder!

And should

The moon, my

Indefatigable cousin

Rise, with her cancerous pallors,

Dragging trees --

Little bushy polyps,

Little nets,

My visibilities hide.

I gleam like a mirror.

At this facet the bridegroom arrives

Lord of the mirrors!

It is himself he guides

In among these silk

Screens, these rustling appurtenances.

I breathe, and the mouth

Veil stirs its curtain

My eye

Veil is

A concatenation of rainbows.

I am his.

Even in his

Absence, I

Revolve in my

Sheath of impossibles,

Priceless and quiet

Among these parrakeets, macaws!

O chatterers

Attendants of the eyelash!

I shall unloose

One feather, like the peacock.

Attendants of the lip!

I shall unloose

One note

Shattering

The chandelier

Of air that all day flies

Its crystals

A million ignorants.

Attendants!

Attendants!

And at his next step

I shall unloose

I shall unloose --

From the small jeweled

Doll he guards like a heart --

The lioness,

The shriek in the bath,

The cloak of holes.

Sylvia Plath

The first part of the poem, Plath speaks about the clarities women possess over men. Men are a thorn in the sides of women. Jade symbolizes, in many cultures, love. Men are vain and love is nothing more than an excuse for them to feel important and needed. Plath believes that many women wait for their men to change, to come to their senses in marriage, to woo them but alas nothing comes of it and because they are left empty-handed in the end they also are left with broken hearts. In the end, the woman in the poem decides to voice her troubles, her woes to her husband and no longer remain silenced.

This poem is considered by many to be a feminist piece of poetry.