Review: "Ariel", Sylvia Plath
Apr. 10th, 2023 03:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
x_losI go back and forth on this book. At times it made me feel like I couldn't read, like I had cottage cheese for a brain. I longed for Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who
1. fucks severely, and
2. goes in for narrative.
But then I read the second half of the book, which is more narrative-driven, in a sitting and found myself entering into the collection much more successfully, grasping the rhythm and substance (if not the import of every line). Ultimately though, I do think I do better with narrative poetry. I appreciate imagery and sound, but not exactly as aims in their own right when the piece's conceptual coherence isn't rock-solid. (And it may be more solid here than I always appreciated: right now, I'm not a great reader of this form.)
1. fucks severely, and
2. goes in for narrative.
But then I read the second half of the book, which is more narrative-driven, in a sitting and found myself entering into the collection much more successfully, grasping the rhythm and substance (if not the import of every line). Ultimately though, I do think I do better with narrative poetry. I appreciate imagery and sound, but not exactly as aims in their own right when the piece's conceptual coherence isn't rock-solid. (And it may be more solid here than I always appreciated: right now, I'm not a great reader of this form.)
