As the season shifts from summer to fall, we see other elements around us shifting. Our peers’ clothes shift as more skin is covered to protect from the cool breeze entering campus. Tanned skin from the summer fades away as we spend more time in the confines of the library, completing and utterly dedicated to the task due at 11:59 p.m.
We are no different from the poets, writers, and brilliant academics who came well before us. We are always in a constant state of revising, editing, shifting, and evolving. Slyvia Plath is a perfect person to reference and learn more about in the upcoming fall weather.
Poetry in the fall, especially when Cornell’s campus is filled with fall foliage, is a great and enriching pastime. Slyvia Plath was a famous poem writer who died by taking her own life on Feb. 11, 1963. After she died, her poems were published in various forms so the world could see her creative madness. Her husband, Ted Hughes, initially selected poems to share. However, her daughter, Frieda, took control recently to give a complete collection of all of her poems, including original manuscripts in her new book Ariel: The Restored Edition.
If you are looking for a good poetry collection to read in the Arts Quad after a long day of classes, Ariel: The Restored Edition is perfect for the occasion. After reading the first Ariel, published in 1965, it was clear that her husband, Ted Hughes, had a specific narrative he wanted to create that reflected on himself more than Plath. In the restored version of Ariel, there is a forward included by her daughter, Frieda Hughes, who divulges valuable knowledge about Slyvia Plath’s personal life. In the forward, she states, “The collection of Ariel poems became symbolic to me of this possession of my mother and the wider vilification of my father.” However, Slyvia Plath’s beauty was her dark and twisted way of describing her relationships with others and herself. Her poetry gives us a peek into her brilliant brain as she describes day-to-day occurrences and combines them with personification and crude thought to paint a clearer picture of how she feels.
Reading Plath’s poetry forces you to take a step back and be more reflective, which is essential, particularly in the upcoming season. The fall is a time for people to get into a new “era” filled with Halloween festivities and pumpkin spice lattes. Adding a little Plath to your daily routine can lead you to be quite reflective and force you to slow down and admire the change of the season.
There were changes between the original Ariel and the restored version. In both her original version and the restored version, there are poems that are well known and referenced, like “Lady Lazarus” and “Tulips.” These poems still hold the same importance and value—however, in the restored version, there is a new outlet of poems that are worth exploring.
In her restored version, specifically “The Detective” and “The Other,” represent Plath’s relationship with her husband. They are witty but filled with a dark edge that villainizes Ted Hughes, specifically regarding his affair. The addition of these poems allows the reader to understand her pain more. There is a more raw aspect to her poems that had been previously veiled. Because more of her personal life was exposed, I looked at Plath in a different way.
All in all, to make your new season transition special, looking at Plath’s newer poetry is a great outlet. Although her poetry is somewhat dark, it fits the mood of chilly weather and falling leaves. Plath is something you can reference in your academics and personal life, making it a key source to ensure a fantastic fall semester.
Isabella Blanco is a sophomore in the School of Industrial Labor Relations. She can be reached at igb7@cornell.edu.