John's+analysis

The Clossus by Sylvia Plath is overall an extreamly depressing poem however there is still a happy moment in the poem. We can see this depressing side of the poem in the difference from the early part of the poem "i shall never get you put together entirely/ pieced, glued, and properly jointed" (lines 1-2) to the end my hours are married to shadow no longer do i listen for the scrape of akeel on the blank stones of the landing (lines 28-30) but both the beginning and the end are quite depressing, because in the beginning the person has basically given up, but by the end we also have a feeling of loneliness from the line "my hour's are married to shadow" (line 28), this is sort of representing solitude because they have only the shadows as companions and then they have given up hope on listening for a boat to arrive.

However, the poem is not completly depressing it shows the person trying to gain knowledge (even though in the end they will ultimately fail) as we can see in these lines. perhaps you consider yourself an oracle, Mouthpiece of the dead, or of some god or other thirty years now i have labored to dredge the silt from your throat i am none the wiser We can see the attempt at gaining knowledge mainly from the two line "to dredge the silt from your throat/ i am none the wiser" (lines 8-10). We can see that in the context of it being like an oracle or prophet speaking for the dead that dredging the silt from your throat could represent trying to figure out what the statue is trying to say but the person has yet to learn anything after thirty years of labor.

There is really only one moment when there is even a glimmer of happiness and that can be seen in these lines A blue sky out of the Oresteia Arches above us. O father, all by yourself you are pithy and historical as the Roman Forum (lines 15-18) I think this might be in reference to god because it is referencing something ancient and magnificent (the Roman Forum), while also commenting on the peace of the sky like one out of the Oresteia, and then what i find most likely to reference to is god is when the author refers to arches above us as if it is some sort of support like what most people get from religion. I find that it once again refers to religious beliefs specifically the idea of the Fallen Angels and the Devils corruption from these lines in their old anarchy to the horizon line it would take more than a lightning-stroke to create such ruin (lines 21-23) It is where we see old anarchy that is related to the fallen angels and their rebellion, and that it required more than some sort of physical destruction such as lightning to cause the downfall of what might have been the great people who made the statue. From there i got the impression that just like the statue was being corrupted and erroded of time causing this ruin so did the devil as he corrupted humanity.

The only real thing i can see in the poem's structure is that each stanza has five lines each but there doesn't seem to be anything else such as rhyme. However, Plath uses quite a few poetic devices such as imagery, allusions, and onomatopoeia. She uses imagery when she says this line "Like the blue sky of the Oresteia" (line 16) there we obviously get the picture of a blue sky, this sentence also shows us her use of allusion where she refers to the Oresteia. Also her use of onomatopoeia can be seen in line 3 where she says "Mule-bray, pig-grunt, and bawdy cackles".

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