When another poet, she committed self-destruction ( 2599

When another poet, she committed self-destruction ( 2599

When one is in a fog, one can see nil but an eternal sum of Grey, covering the country.

When one is outside of the fog, one sees a cloud. Fogs and clouds serve as metaphors for many topics. They could intend the last spot of chance before a acrimonious stoping, or deficiency of lucidity, or even lack of boundaries. Many authors use such metaphors in books, and they have become about cliche . Poets besides use such techniques less often.

Both Sylvia Plath and Carl Sandburg have used those subjects at least one time. Their verse forms, “ Sheep in Fog ” by Sylvia Plath ( Ariel ) and “ Fog ” by Carl Sandburg ( Chicago ) portion a similar subject of fog and can state much about personal experiences they had at the clip of composing. Their lives besides help light their stances on life, such as pragmatism versus idealism, and depression versus optimism.From the rubric of Sylvia Plath ‘s verse form, “ Sheep in Fog ” , one can conceive of a few possible significances. One may believe that the sheep signified a religious brush, or even nearing decease, for “ Sheep in Fog ” was one of Plath ‘s last verse form. Another may believe of the Orwellian “ sheep ” metaphor, where sheep means nescient people.

Yet another could be cognizing something is at that place, but non wise, or fearing, its being. Sheep and fog are likewise colored, so it could be a metaphor for non cognizing what to make next. Ted Hughes, her former hubby, provinces in On Sylvia Plath, “ The last Ariel verse form, “ Sheep in Fog, ” came on December 2nd.

This was besides the last verse form she wrote ( except for the unfinished “ Eavesdropper ” ) until after the novel was published. It was so the first verse form she picked up, on January 28th, when she made the rectification that revealed it as the lament and funeral cortege for the Ariel inspiration ” ( On Plath ) . Sylvia Plath committed suicide subsequently that twelvemonth, on February 11, 1963. Plath used elements of whiteness in the verse form, meaning this was non needfully about common mans traveling through a clip of no distinct world, but really more of pureness, or the terminal of times.Despite the idea of pureness, Plath was really troubled in her life. The life of Plath in The Norton Anthology of American Literature explains, “ Plath ‘s well-known autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, has nil of the glare of her verse forms, but it efficaciously dramatizes the stereotyping of adult females ‘s functions in the 1950 ‘s, and the convulsion of a immature adult female merely partially cognizant that her gifts and aspirations greatly exceed the options available toward her ” ( 2598 ) . In other words, she did n’t speak about how great a poet she was, but she did n’t neglect to advert all the convulsion and stereotyping of the 1950 ‘s, every bit good as her ain problems.

A twelvemonth after she got divorced from Ted Hughes, another poet, she committed self-destruction ( 2599 ) . Her tragic life may hold been channeled through the verse form “ Sheep in Fog ” , included in the book Ariel, which her former hubby published a twelvemonth after she had died.The verse form “ Sheep in fog ” may make a different significance than merely the rubric. The first stanza sounds about tragic. It begins with an image of fog. It ends on a much more drab note. Plath writes, “ The hills step away into whiteness.

/ People or stars / Regard me unhappily, I disappoint them ” ( lines 1-3 ) . The 2nd line could be a representation of the size difference, between something really little, like people to something much larger, like stars, and how it does n’t count the size, but that the storyteller disappoints. The following stanza, “ The train leaves a line of breath. / O decelerate / Horse the coloring material of rust, ” ( lines 4-6 ) adds an image of a train, and compares it to a Equus caballus. The verse form continues imagination of sheep and fog, but ne’er the words sheep or fog, except in the rubric. The last stanza, “ They threaten / to allow me through to a heaven / Starless and fatherless, a dark H2O ” ( lines 14-16 ) , signifies a reluctance to accept any good. The last line may be referential to Plath, as she lost her father early in her life, and was really pessimistic.

The last line besides brings up the “ people and stars ” construct, as if the star is in fact a hope of a better life, and non merely a representation of size. Even with the whiteness contrasting the darkness, the verse form, similar to her life, is really cheerless and tragic.The rubric to Carl Sandburg ‘s verse form, “ Fog ” , and the verse form itself, could be as different in significance as Sylvia Plath ‘s. The word “ fog ” could be actual ; it could be metaphorical for deficiency of boundary, deficiency of lucidity, or sightlessness.

The verse form is one of a aggregation entitled “ Chicago verse form ” , which were verse forms written when Sandburg was populating his life in Chicago, right before World War I. That could propose that fog could be literally about fog in Chicago.Sandburg was rather a different character from Plath. He seemed much more optimistic in his life. His life started out as a hapless household life in Galesburg and making uneven occupations.

Finally, Carl went through school, pulling the attending of many, the first of whom being Professor Philip Green. Professor Green helped print Sandburg ‘s first work. Subsequently on, Sandburg ‘s household moved from Galesburg to Chicago, where Carl worked as a author for the local newspaper. After the Chicago Poems, he studied Abraham Lincoln, and wrote a six-volume novel about him ( Academy ) . The really active life style Carl had developed helped him to be optimistic throughout his life.The verse form “ Fog ” was a actual reading of fog and a personification of it as if the fog was a cat. The first twosome of lines, “ The fog comes / on small cat pess ” ( Sandburg lines 1-2 ) begins the reading of fog non as haze, but as a cat, possibly gently walking towards a metropolis.

The following stanza, “ It sits looking / over seaport and metropolis / on soundless haunches / and so moves on ” ( lines 3-6 ) completes the image of the catlike fog. Line three and five make more of a personification, as if the fog and the cat were the same thing. Line four creates a graduated table of a catlike fog as if the fog was the size of a cloud, and non the size of a cat. That provides a difference between the two.There are many differences between the significances and the subjects of the verse forms, even though they have really similar rubrics. For illustration, Sandburg ‘s was about the motion of fog, and Plath ‘s was n’t approximately obscure at all, but instead about emotional convulsion and nearing decease.

Puting those aside, Sandburg ‘s was non noticing on the decency of fog, whereas Plath used it as a negative intension. Last, Plath ‘s was long and stretched out, whereas Sandburg ‘s was short and concise. Those differences create a clang within the characters.The topical differences between “ Fog ” and “ Sheep in Fog ” are really apparent, but there are many personal differences every bit good. First of wholly, there was a big difference in the age of each poet when they wrote the verse forms. Plath was 29 when she wrote her verse form, and she finished it a month before she died. Sandburg was 38 when he wrote his verse form, and he lived for another 50 old ages.

They did decease within a twelvemonth of each other, but the verse forms were written at different times. Plath was born in the great depression, whereas Sandburg was born before the bend of the century. The many differences that they had as people could hold affected the verse forms and what they were approximately.Fogs can be shown as an look of Sylvia Plath ‘s life, and the clip of Carl Sandburg ‘s. One can acquire a batch of information from the inexplicit lines of those verse forms, or any verse forms.

These verse forms are mere illustrations of what fog can make. No lucidity in authorship can be shown as fog. It can be shown as an unknown factor even in love. Fog is besides a subject that has been used in many more applications than merely poesy, or even literature. For illustration, fog in films adds a sense of non cognizing what is traveling on, or what will go on next.

It adds a sense of suspense. It can besides be used to demo depression, or a blue event, or an outward representation of unhappiness. Fog has many applications, and can be utile for a author of any sort. What will obscure make next?