Women Poets
In light of International Women’s Day recently on the 8th March 2021, this week’s blog post will be dedicated to celebrate two well-known American women poets, Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath. Both poets had colourful lives, and suffered with mental health issues.
Beginning with Emily Dickinson, just who is— or shall we say was— Emily Dickinson? Dickinson was born in Massachusetts, 1830. One of the most interesting things about Dickinson was that she spent most of her life in isolation— in later life she refused to leave even her bedroom. She was known also for her obsession with white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests. However, perhaps the most surprising fact regarding Dickinson’s works was that much of it was published after her death in 1886, when her younger sister, Lavinia made the discovery. Only 10 poems— out of a grand total of 1800— were published during Dickinson’s lifetime. Even when the works were published, they were edited so that they fitted conventional poetry rules. Features of Dickinson’s poetry that made her so unique to her era included untitled poems, short lines, and slant rhyme. Death and immorality are the main themes of her poetry, and such topics were often included in letter exchanges with friends, which was the primary way she communicated with people.
The second and final of this week’s poets is Sylvia Plath, who was also born in Massachusetts. Married to English poet Ted Hughes, a Poet Laureate, Plath is probably most known for her only novel The Bell Jar, which is often deemed to be semi-autographical, and was published shortly before she died at the age of thirty. However, Plath also wrote short stories as well as poems. Her first collection of poems that was published was The Colossus and Other Poems in the late 1960s. Arguably, it is Ariel, a posthumous publication, on which her reputation rests.
If this post has inspired you to know more about these talented women poets, and continue to celebrate International Women’s Day, then you can read Marnie Pomeroy’s book about Sylvia Plath’s troubled life here. Alternatively, if you wish to read more about Emily Dickinson, Pomeroy also gives a comprehensive account into Dickinson’s fascinating life and works, linked here.