As Chin says, “Published by Nun Prophet Press and curated by Jerome Berglund, Heterodox Haiku Journal editor, this book combines poetry with visual art to offer a unique reading experience. Whether you’re a fan of poetry, art, or both, this book promises to be a delightful addition to your collection.
You can find it here for $4.00. Please grab a copy and help support indie publishers! Your support means the world to me and to the indie publishing community.”
I have no father!
Even though I was a man, he smiled,
The most sincere person in the world.
Although I was stubborn, he thought of me,
You are my one and only father.
Sometimes I hurt you,
I put it down to manhood and youth.
Even then, the person who looked at my heart,
You are my one piece, my world, dad.
Sometimes we didn’t sleep because of the chaos.
You were tired, but we did not stay silent.
Anyway, a man who can’t stop loving
My father is a hero in my personal world.
You are my greatest happiness in the world,
I walk in your shadow, wealth is my throne.
You are the reason I click the steps chart,
My respect is endless, my country is my father!
snow –
the chirp of a robin
so muffled
Examine close reading of Sylvia Plath’s poems “Lady Lazarus” and “Daddy” with critical perspectives and textual references in association with the thesis statement that “Lady Lazarus” and “Daddy” both rebel coercion confinement of patriarchy and misogyny.
(Image of Sylvia Plath, young white woman with brown hair and eyes, yellow v-neck sweater, red lipstick and a headband)
Examine close reading of Sylvia Plath’s poems “Lady Lazarus” and “Daddy” with critical perspectives and textual references in association with the thesis statement that “Lady Lazarus” and “Daddy” both rebel coercion and confinement of patriarchy and misogyny.
Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” and “Daddy” are conical works of transcendentalist American feminism posthumously anthologized in the poetry collection Ariel in 1965. American poetesses’ egotistical individuality and romanticist fantasy of selfhood quest crusading the forces of sublimity is universally foreshadowed by the phenomenal poems. Gloom and doom, dark humour and black humour engender the motifs of revenge and memory through mythologization, poeticization, psychologization, romanticization and/or fantasization in these quasi-confessional and quasi autobiographical elegies.
“Lady Lazarus” is a vindication of the temptation of fate as implied in the poetical rhetorics: “Herr God, Herr Lucifer”/ “Beware/ Beware”. Epiphanic voice of the romanticist egomaniacal heroine of femininity is reflected in the biblical figuration of the transformative poetess. The resurrectionist figuration is an avenging phoenix that transcends the contemporary recalcitrant barriers of race, class, ethnicity, gender, nationality and culture[al] stereotyp[ical]es expectations of the hackneyed microcosm. This overarching feminist emancipation salvages herself by historicizing in the hyperbolic figurative tropes foreshadowing: “Out of the ash/ I rise with my red hair/ And I eat men like air.” Etherealism and surrealism surmounts in the reincarnation and resurrection impresarios of “Lady Lazarus”.
On the contrary, “Daddy” was merely the first jet of flames from a literary dragon, who in the last years of her life breathed a burning river of bale across the literary landscape. “Daddy” is a subversive indictment of overarching feminism harbouring cantankerousness and obstreperousness against patriarchal dominance. “Daddy, daddy, you bastard. I’m through…” is the culmination of a matriarchal feminist stance of the woman poet in accord with the second and third wave of feminism epochs. American poetess Sylvia Plath’s invocation of fascism and nazism is entwined in the impresario that she envisions witnessing renderings of holocaust Nazi cremation of the extermination in concentration camps and the associated violence and trauma of survivialhood. This documentary testament bears antisemitism as projected by the figurative tropes: “my skin/bright as a Nazi lampshade” and “my face…/… Jewish linen”.
Quintessential poetry of the grotesquery of suffering and vulnerability are starkly evident in both the poems. In comparison, both of these poems are embodiments of empowered femininity through canonical works of women writing. “Lady Lazarus” fictional character and poetic personae reawakens and resurrects the graveyard tombed femininity in avenging the suicidal despair—-”It’s a theatrical comeback in broadway” echoes and resonates the revenge fantasy of impulsive and ironwilled “Lady Lazarus’s” femininity—a noteworthy exploration of second and third wave feminism. In contrast, “Daddy” disempowers patriarchal subjectivity of the object of male gaze, which views womanhood and femininity as commodities of objectification and fetishization.
“And a head in the freakish Atlantic/ Where it pours bean-green over blue/ In the waters of the beautiful Nauset”. Elegiac diatribe imperils the fatherly figure’s imperious and domineering spirits: closure of relationship; association to racism of antisemitism: furtherance to the testament of burgeoning and full fledged feminist movements. In a nutshell, “Daddy” is a melodramatic treasure hunt of communion of torture, trauma, massacre, sacrifical martyrdom and survivalist victimhood. Cultural appropriation of the imaginary Plathian canonical homeland casts a role as the subversive counter cultural feminine speaking back to the dominant masculinist authoritarianism and hegemony. Moreover, obituary and elegy of the electra complex critiquing the fascist vampiric perpetrator’s predatoriness as morbidly entrenched within the masculinist domain. Perceptive subjectivity of being deported to the Holocaust concentration camp is envisioned and foretold by the metaphors of apocalyptic gloom and doom as embodied by the wretchedness and viciousness of fathers and husbands in general. Despite the heritage of the dictatorial regime and patriarchal misogyny, “Every woman adores a fascist” … “And get back, back, back to you.”
“Lady Lazarus” and “Daddy” voices puritanical spirits of protest against rigidified and terroristic visions of male power and masculinist authority. These poems canonize themselves as transgressive dialects transforming invisibility to visibility and private as public.
Further Reading, References, Endnotes and Podcasts
A Lecture on Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” and “Daddy” John Pistelli
2.72K subscribers
American Literature | Sylvia Plath: analysis of “Daddy” | Poem analysis Ad Maiora
83.7K subscribers
Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath in 8 minutes Simon Andrew
1.23K subscribers
Daddy by Silvia Plath Simon Andrew 1.23K subscribers
Review – Lady Lazarus (Sylvia Plath) – Patron Poem
Stripped Cover Lit
14K subscribers
Sylvia Plath, Cliffs Notes on American Poets of the 20th Century Mary Ellen Snodgrass, M.A. University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Lincoln, Nebraska, pp. 211-217, 2000.
“Daddy” Jacqueline Rose, Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Sylvia Plath (2007), Bloom’s Literary Criticism, pp. 38-51
Chapter Title: Plath’s Bodily Ego Restaging the Sublime, Book Title: Women Poets and the American Sublime, Joanne Feit Diehl, Indiana University Press (1990) pp. 1-32
Wikipedia Readings
Produced By Vincent Turner, Developed By Robert Sacchi, 115 pages. Phase: Pre-production/Development, Budget Estimation: $23,000-314,000. Pitch deck and budget list available, please email synchchaos@gmail.com if interested.
Charles Griffin, a philosophy professor, is challenged by Adam, one of his students, over his unruly behaviour while lecturing. Though Charles is unhappy lecturing by the books, Adam’s challenge becomes the inspiration behind his nascent philosophy.
FREAKY BODIES
Mood of the moment
seductive in dullness
eternal eros:
changing constantly inside
now says she hates my scent
taunting the old pain
in the brothel of bed
kitchen or shower
she fears the freaky bodies
snaky arousal and peak
through sucking hisses
thuds and soft screams repeated
in sync dripping down
until next round of silence
with back to each other
ABRUPT NOTES
Intentionally layered
internally fragmented
queer antics:
she builds up her own
sexual toolkit to prove
how coward man is
she sees a rapist
in each man detests
the male smell but trusts
one night stand
with deep thrust
long erections
and climax control
for blood to soak smoothly
she sits shrouded
in her see-through pink gown
on the terrace
inviting autumn winds
for longer stopover
just to accuse the artist
of invading her body
she curses a young bull
for obstructing her way
in the street shouts at hawkers
and, yet another
at eighty re-imagines
fading memories
with snaky radiance
to break a new dawn
my friend says
the dynamics change:
there’s a before
and an after
to feel life
I say yes, but I’m tired
of walking and writing
what I watch
I’m no tout to comfort
or restore the faith
of a dwindling flock in heat
culling is convenient
TANKA
Unquenched thirst
more and more indulgence:
momentary pleasure
she says it’s enough now
rein the horse and seek the missed
***
Half-drunk women
on one side of the road
pimps on the other
ready to seize first-timers
to the tin box by street lamps
***
Standing on a cloud
look through an open doorway:
desires awakened
before I could step inside
the door closed, I missed my chance
***
At the swimming pool
he asks if he could borrow
her underwear just
to feel her from inside
with fidgeting currents
***
Unquenched thirst
more and more indulgence:
momentary pleasure
she says it’s enough now
rein the horse and seek the missed
***
God has become
a habit in helplessness:
faith a deception
when unable to enjoy
love, life and wonders of world
***
Shiva and Shakti
our freedom in union:
twin flame of love
rolling in grains of sand
transcending together
***
Future legacy
and dynamics of peace:
I seek solace in
Camus’s absurd, my silence
and indifferent universe
Ram Krishna Singh, also known as R.K. Singh, has published poems, articles and book reviews in various magazines and journals over the years and taught English for Science and Technology, Indian Writing in English, and Criticism at IIT-ISM, Dhanbad for nearly four decades. His published poetry collections include Against the Waves: Selected Poems (2021), 白濁: SILENCE: A WHITE DISTRUST (English/Japanese, 2022), Poems and Micropoems (2023), and Knocking Vistas And Other Poems (2024). More at https://pennyspoetry.fandom.com/wiki/R.K._Singh
Video: One Man’s Deep Words
First of all, an announcement from contributor Chimezie Ihekuna, who is seeking an investor/executive producer for the project, One Man’s Deep Words. It is set in the US.
Produced By Vincent Turner, Developed By Robert Sacchi, 115 pages. Phase: Pre-production/Development, Budget Estimation: $23,000-314,000. Pitch deck and budget list available, please email synchchaos@gmail.com if interested.
Charles Griffin, a philosophy professor, is challenged by Adam, one of his students, over his unruly behaviour while lecturing. Though Charles is unhappy lecturing by the books, Adam’s challenge becomes the inspiration behind his nascent philosophy.
Title: Reflective Thinking (Volume 1)
Tracks: 5 (Excluding the Intro, Album title and About The Creator)
Creator: Mr Ben
Album Title and About The Creator
Intro
Track 1: The Current State Of Being
Track 2: Keep Your Head Up
Track 3: Discouragement: A Part Of Success
Track 4: Independence or In Dependence?
Track 5: Death And Life
(My questions)
Outro
Description of the Reflective Thinking “album”
This is a conception that delves into the afterthought of what people would not take to consideration. It “mirrors” people’s notions but aims at asserting the need to look into the other side of their known thought. It is a call to meditation: looking deeper into what their thoughts reflect.
The Intro part simply explains what results in actions of anyone (the creator, in particular): the thought process
The Outro segment deals with the creator’s conceived quote, which happens to be his best: “Determination without conception is like reaching a destination without intention”
The Current State Of Being simply explains what the new normal is, resulting from the fact that the world of today is wrong that what’s left isn’t right and what should be right isn’t left
Keep Your Head Up talks about the need for young people to prioritize their health, in the quest of acquiring wealth.
Discouragement: A Part of Success , according to the creator’s Reflective Thinking, puts to recognition: Discouragement is the inevitable tool few people who become successful use to attain such feat and maintain or advance it.
Independent or In Dependence? is one situation the creator asserts to address. He maintains that we, as a people and society, are IN DEPENDENT (NOT INDEPENDENT) of one thing or the other, such as food, government to ascertain the standard and cost of living, politics, education, business, media and so on to validate existence and sovereignty
Death and Life (My Questions): The creator seeks to delve into the “mysteries”, in the form of questioning, of what connects both contradictions, in terms of using various parameters which are rarely depicted by mainstream concerns.
“Mr. Ben is currently seeking acquisition and or licensing of the album.”
See attached the audio files, available for listening and perusal.