The+Colossus


 * Paraphrase**

I'll never be able to properly complete you. You make annoying, vulgar barnyard sounds.

Maybe you think you're a prophet who speaks for a god. I've worked to understand what your saying for thirty years, and I have learned nothing.

I'm working hard like an ant, To fix your head and clear up your eyes.

There's a blue sky above us. Father, you're as old as the Roman Forum. (blue sky represents future prosperity of Athens in Oresteia) (father--lots of poetry about father) I'm eating my lunch on a hill. Your bones and hair are lying around.

Earlier, it didn't take much at all to cause a lot of destruction. I sit in your left ear at night to stay out of the wind.

I count the different-colored stars. I see the sun rise under your tongue. My time is dark. No longer do I listen for a ship to come in and land.

Title tells you they're talking about a statue, maybe somebody big and powerful.

Oresteia: trilogy of Greek tragedies about revenge acanthine: plant; architectural ornament resembling the leaves of the acanthus plant keel: part of a ship fluted bones: pillars

Historical Allusions/Other Notes Oresteia: Greek myth about someone who murders their mother and then Furies who come after them Roman Forum: Roman building dredging silt from throat for 30 years: trying to understand it unsuccessfully for 30 years weedy: cleaning it and clearing it of silt, weeds, etc. more than a lightning stroke: it's all broken and she's trying to put it together but it's fruitless bones, etc.: all points to burial, Greek people buried before

Interesting sound devices/patterns Doesn't rhyme no iambic pentameter

Summarize Surface-Level Meaning putting statue together=fruitless; trying to understand, not working. dirty statue; everything is fruitless

Tone: somber, lonely, hopeless, depressed.

Diction: informal sometimes, formal at others.

Lots of metaphor and imagery. statue, everything could be a metaphor.

autumn feel, dark feel (hours married to shadow), endless feel/ageless.

toward end: talks more about hopelessness and fruitlessness.

starts out annoyed, then kind of good while talking about work, then hopeless at the end.

pithy: full of vigor


 * About Sylvia Plath and "The Colossus"**

-She committed suicide in 1963, using a gas oven. -She was the first poet to win Pulitzer Prize after death -A lot of her poetry was influenced by her father, who died when she was young, most notably her famous poem "[|Daddy]" -//Colossus//, her first collection of poems, which included "The Colossus" was the only work of hers that was published while she was alive. -She had written poetry from a very young age and was always driven to succeed as a poet -She was one of the best-known writers of [|confessional poetry], in which the poets wrote, to some extent, autobiographically, and discussed "subject matter that previously had not been openly discussed in American poetry."

Sources: Sylvia Plath. Poets.org. 2009. Dec. 6, 2009. <[]> Daddy. Poets.org. 2009. Dec. 6, 2009. <[]> A Brief Guide to Confessional Poetry. Poets.org. 2009. Dec. 6, 2009. <[]>


 * Poetic Devices**

The poem is full of metaphors, like "the pillar of your tongue" "the cornucopia of your left ear"and "the bald, white tumuli of your eyes". There may additionally be many other metaphors (for instance, the statue itself may be a metaphor for Plath's father), but those are the ones that are undoubtedly metaphorical in nature.

In addition to this, two similes are used, "You are pithy and historical as the Roman / Forum" and "I crawl like an ant in mourning"

Plath also utilizes imagery throughout the poem, from "your great lips" to "A blue sky out of the Oresteia / arches above us"


 * Plan for Video**

We will have Simeon reading out the poem slowly and somberly, while Charlie and John act it out and we cut periodically to relevant pictures.

1st stanza (acted out) Charlie worka on John Hadley with a hammer, nails and glue, lightly tapping him. John is spread-eagled on the ground; John Hadley make annoying barnyard noises 2nd stanza (pictures and acting out) flash a picture of a prophet, then show Charlie working hopelessly and getting tired. Flash a big "now" and then flash a " thirty years later" with charlie, now bearded, still working. 3rd stanza (acted out) Charlie climbs stairs with glue, a bucket, and some lysol; cut to Charlie crawling, then big statue head, lying broken on the ground, overgrown with weeds. close up on eyes. 4th (acted out and pictures) outside: shoot blue sky, cut to Roman Forum; Charlie opening a brown lunch-sack, cut to fallen autumn leaves scattered on ground) 5th (pictures) start with a lightning strike, and then cut to a ruined building and then a cornucopia picture) 6th (acted out & pictures) Charlie pointing up at sky counting "stars", cut to a picture of pillar of sun; Charlie, in the shadows giving up his work hopelessly

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 * Video**

@John's analysis Marina's analysis Simeon's analysis Charlie's analysis

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