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A review by thesinginglights
Crossing the Water by Sylvia Plath
3.0
3.5 stars
I just realised that this is the first book of poetry I've read from start to finish. The first time I've shelved something under "poetry". So I acknowledge I come from a point of potential ignorance.
But.
My first collection was haunting and confusing. As is wont to happen in a collection of everything, not all poems are created equal. There's enough here to excite but also not everything sings.
Among my favourites were:
The eponymous poem "Crossing The Water"
A little light is filtering from the water flowers.
Their leaves do not wish us to hurry:
They are round and flat and full of dark advice.
"Face Lift"
For five days I lie in secret,
Tapped like a cask, the years draining into my pillow.
Even my best friend thinks I'm in the country.
The view from the window scene in "Parliament Hill Fields"
On this bald hill the new year hones its edge.
Faceless and pale as china
The round sky goes on minding its business.
"I Am Vertical"
It is more natural to me, lying down.
Then the sky and I are in open conversation,
And I shall be useful when I lie down finally:
Then the trees may touch me for once, and the flowers have time for me.
...among others like "Mirror" or "Insomniac".
This might be me but there's a lot of darkness and foreboding in this collection, blackness and longing for motion when there's not a lot of it, birds and violent colours. We have the privilege of perspective but there's a weight to every line Plath has put down, of struggle and sacrifice.
I enjoyed it overall, some of it's dated, some of it is a bit inscrutable for me untrained poetic mind. I think this will reveal itself in re-reads.
I just realised that this is the first book of poetry I've read from start to finish. The first time I've shelved something under "poetry". So I acknowledge I come from a point of potential ignorance.
But.
My first collection was haunting and confusing. As is wont to happen in a collection of everything, not all poems are created equal. There's enough here to excite but also not everything sings.
Among my favourites were:
The eponymous poem "Crossing The Water"
A little light is filtering from the water flowers.
Their leaves do not wish us to hurry:
They are round and flat and full of dark advice.
"Face Lift"
For five days I lie in secret,
Tapped like a cask, the years draining into my pillow.
Even my best friend thinks I'm in the country.
The view from the window scene in "Parliament Hill Fields"
On this bald hill the new year hones its edge.
Faceless and pale as china
The round sky goes on minding its business.
"I Am Vertical"
It is more natural to me, lying down.
Then the sky and I are in open conversation,
And I shall be useful when I lie down finally:
Then the trees may touch me for once, and the flowers have time for me.
...among others like "Mirror" or "Insomniac".
This might be me but there's a lot of darkness and foreboding in this collection, blackness and longing for motion when there's not a lot of it, birds and violent colours. We have the privilege of perspective but there's a weight to every line Plath has put down, of struggle and sacrifice.
I enjoyed it overall, some of it's dated, some of it is a bit inscrutable for me untrained poetic mind. I think this will reveal itself in re-reads.