Conclusion and List of References

In the transitional phase of her creativity mere artistry does not become sufficient to control the surging fear inside. The transition happens both in thematic and structural pattern. Thematically, a desire for the protective and regenerative womb of the earth or mother creates its own language and imagery, resulting in a more meaningful poetics, where theme and technique begin to reinforce each other.

The final phase of writing, which is more psychic and frenzied, follows when fear cannot be controlled by merely looking away. Plath finally meets her challenge, she becomes as fierce and scathing in her rage; she attacks all people, objects and institutions responsible for generating fear. The futility of life before the fact of death and calm acceptance of the same, give dignity to Plath’s confessional poems.

 She was a struggler, ambitious and had all dreams to enjoy the luxuries of good clothes, dance parties, slick boyfriends, with the chief consideration, no doubt, of being acclaimed. Whenever she had rushed to life with her vivacious effervescence, she was immediately able to perceive what lay beneath all the superficial glitter. And this penetrating insight of hers brought only gloom and despair for her which she tried to fight.

                                                                                                               

                                            

                                                                      Notes

 

      1. Robert Philips, The Confessional Poets (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern IIIinois University Press, 1973) 7-8.

2. Northrop Fry, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960).

       3.  Roy Pascal, Design and Truth in Autobiography (London: Routeledge and Kegan Paul, 1960) 112.

     4.  J.D. McClatchy, ed. Anne Sexton: The Artist (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978), 27.

     5.  Anne Sexton, The Complete Poems (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981) 48.

     6. Robert Phillips, “Confessional Mode in Modern American Poetry,” The         Confessional Poets (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1973) 2.

     7.  E. V. Ramkrishnan, Crisis and Confession ( New Delhi: Chanakya Publication, 1988)      16.

    8.  Karl Malkoff, Crowell’s Handbook of Contemporary American Poetry (New York: Crowell Company, 1973)28

   9.   Morris Dickstein, Gates of Eden: American Culture in the sixties( New York: Basic Books, 1977)58.

 10.  Julia Kristeva, “Oscillation between Power and Denial,” Marks and de Courtivron, Ed. New French Feminism, 166.

11.  Anne Stevenson, Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath (Boston: Houghton Heflin Company, 198)2.

12.  Aurelia Plath, Sylvia Plath’s Letters Home (London: Faber and Faber, 1975)123.

13.  Sylvia Plath, “Cambridge Notes,” Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams   (London: Faber, 1977) 219.

14.  Gordon Lameyer, Sylvia Plath: The Woman and the Work, ed. Edward Butscher, (New York: Dodd, 1977) 37.

15.  Keya Majumdar, Sylvia Plath: The Complete Poet (New Delhi: Prestige Book, 2002)        33.

16.  Sylvia Plath, “Cambridge Notes,”210.

17.  Ibid., 209.

18.  Sylvia Plath, Letters Home (London: Faber and Faber, 1975) 212.

19.  Keya Majumdar, Sylvia Plath: The Complete Poet (Delhi: Prestige, 2002)38.

20.  Sylvia Plath, Aurelia Schober ed. Letters Home Correspondence 1950-1963 (New York: Harper, 1975) 221.

21.  A.Alvarez, Prologue: The Savage God (New York: Random House, 1970) 13.

22.   Keya Majumdar, Sylvia Plath: The Complete Poet (Delhi: Prestige, 2002)21.

23.   Annette Lavers, The World as Icon: The Art of Sylvia Plath, 120.

24.  Judith Kroll, Chapters in Mythology (New York: Harper and Row, 1976) 186.

25. George Stade, “Introduction,” A Close Look at Ariel: A Memoir of Sylvia Plath by Nancy Hunter Steiner (New York: Harper, 1973)528.

26.  Edward Butscher, Sylvia Plath: Method and Madness (New York: Seabury Press, 1917)244.

27.  Pashupati Jha, Sylvia Plath (New Delhi: Creative Publishers.1991)44.

28.Betty Friedan, “The Crisis in Women’s Identity” The Feminine Mystique

(New York: Dell, 1963)62-67.

29. Pashupati Jha, Sylvia Plath (New Delhi: Creative Publishers, 1991)54.

30. Pashupati Jha, Sylvia Plath (New Delhi: Creative Publishers, 1991)56.

31. Pamela Annas, A Disturbance in Mirrors: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath( New York, Westport, Connecticut, London: Greenwood Press, 1988)58.

32. Mary Lynn Bore, Protean Poetic: The poetry of Sylvia Plath ( Columbia:

       University of Missouri Press, 1980)121.

33. Gary Lane, (ed.) Sylvia Plath: New Voice on Poetry( Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979)34.

34.  Charles Newman, “Candor is the only Wile.” The Art of Sylvia Plath (London: Faber  and Faber,1970)21-25.