Georgia Amick

Professor Phillips

English 101

14 Feb. 2016

"Edge"

Sylvia Plath wrote the poem "Edge" in 1963, only one week before committing suicide.  Plath was an American poet and produced many works,  the first written when she was as young as 8 , until her death at age 31.  By the time she reached the age of 18 she was struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts.  When she reached the age of 31 she took her own life in her family home. The poem Edge has undertones of possible suicidal contemplation, and was the last work produced by Plath before her death.  The poem illustrates graphic imagery through the use of similes, metaphors, symbols, and personification by the narrator, to imply that the woman depicted in the poem has just committed suicide, as well as possibly infanticide, and she feels satisfied in her acts.

The inference that the woman the Narrator is describing seems to have just committed suicide, as well as infanticide, comes from the direct language of the poem itself.   This is shown to the reader through describing within the first and second stanzas "Her dead | Body wears the smile of accomplishment." These linehi

sout-rightly states that the woman is dead and the Narrator is explaining the scene.  The line also shows that the woman in the poem felt accomplished and happy with her death.  A hint that the woman has just killed her children is also forwardly stated in the poem as "Each dead child coiled ... | One at each ... .| Pitcher of milk, now empty" within the fifth and sixth stanza.  This portion seems to imply that the woman depicted, has poisoned her kids in order to die with them.   Within the second stanza, Plath also refers to the "Greek necessity" and that is believed to be a allusion to the concept that suicide was an honorable death to the Greeks, as well as, the preferred death to many. The narrator began using direct word choices, but in the second half of the poem there is a use of a simile to reiterate the events that have just taken place.  The woman is compared to a rose and her children as petals which "she has folded | ...  back into her body", expressive of this woman having just killed her children and then herself and that "She has folded | Them back" together through death. In the eighth stanza, "the night flower" is a term that the reader is led to believe to symbolize 'death'.

The woman in the poem not only has just committed suicide, as well as, killed her children, but the word choice throughout the poem also depicts that she was happy to kill and to die.  The first line says that she has been "perfected" and in the second stanza the narrator, to represent the woman having just died, uses the term "accomplishment".  Also, the word choices used in the second half of the poem are of a garden and flowers, which are terms that normally depict scenes or traits of beauty and grace, not normally death, which is often seen as an unsightly and feared thing.  

Similes and metaphors within the poem by Plath give powerful imagery for the audience to see what the narrator is explaining.  The simile of the children's death being "as petals | Of a rose" gives a powerful comparison of a flower closing to her dying with her children.  This contrast also can indicate to the audience that the woman is doing this in the belief that she is protecting her children, bringing them in close to her and unifying all of them in death.  The simile also goes back into the idea that the woman sees death as something to be desired.  Also, the metaphor for the Children being "white serpent[s]" could mean the children are pale because life has left their bodies. Also in a medical sense, when people are dying there is generally a 'coiling' of limbs back into the body, this is often explained as the "lizard brain" and is a reaction by a last ditch effort of self-preservation, so this could be what the narrator meant when calling them serpents, and even explaining it as "Each Dead child coiled ... " in the fifth stanza.  

The powerful use of symbols by the narrator within the poem is another way for the audience to visualize the scene they have just entered into.  The most notable use of symbolism is through the term "the night flower", which is meant to symbolize death.  After the narrator compares the woman and her children to a closing rose, there is an explanation of the rose closing "when the garden | Stiffens and odors bleed | From the sweet, deep throats of the night flower".  If the rose is the woman and her children, then the garden would be, generally, a symbol for the entity of life, "stiffening" possibly meant to represent the life slipping away (or in a medical aspect, possibly the setting of rigor mortis) and finally, the night flower being a sweet death which is now, possibly causing an odor and is irreversible ("deep").  The final symbol to be discussed is in the final two stanzas of the poem, describing the moon.   The moon could possibly be a symbol for some type of deity, or even just a representation of Plath's mindset towards suicide.  The deity aspect will be what is referred to as being the symbol for the moon, because even if it does represent Plath, she is, in a sense, the deity or creator of this poem and it's characters.  The symbol of the moon being a type of greater power is meant to represent that this woman's death is overall meaningless in the grand scheme of the rest of the world.  The final stanza says "She is use to this sort of thing" possibly meaning that this is not a death to be either honored or dishonored, the universe will go on in any case.  

Personification is probably the most used rhetorical device by Plath throughout this poem.  The first occurrence is in the second stanza when is says that the woman's body "wears the smile of accomplishment", although the woman was a human, her dead body is not, and, as a whole, cannot smile.  But this use of personification is simply for showing that the woman was happy with her death.  The next personification is in the fourth stanza when the narrator says the woman's "Feet seem to be saying: |We have come so far, it is over."  This personification is another example of how a foot, although a human part, is not human and cannot speak on its own.  The point of this personification is, again, to represent that this woman was relieved through death, her feet saying how she has done her final mission, and there is nothing left that is needed, implying a final fulfillment which was her death.  Between stanzas seven and eight, the quote "the garden | Stiffens ... " is another use of personification by Plath.  To stiffen, is usually a human aspect, or at least a moving organism's aspect, but the use of this was to mean that life (the garden) was no longer natural and organic, but death was seeping through as a type of congealing substance.  The narrator then describes how "odors bleed | From the sweet, deep throats of the night flower."  Odors cannot bleed and nor do flowers have throats, but again this is meant to give a tone of morbidity to the poem, a feeling of a permanence and depth to the death of a woman and her children.  The final use of personification is in the last two stanzas when talking about the moon.  The moon is the object that is given the most human characteristics.  At the beginning of the ninth stanza, it starts with "The moon has nothing to be sad about," a moon cannot feel sad, but it is believed that this just represents an objective omnipotence.  The poem then goes on to say that the moon is staring, referring back to seeing this scene of horror with an apathetic yet understanding eye, which can also be applied when going into the beginning of the final stanza when the narrator says "She is used to this sort of thing", a moon has no emotion of feelings, and so it can certainly not get used to any kind of situation, the narrator simply uses it to express the unconcern of the universe and the 'small-ness' of this woman's subjectively big actions.  

Plath's poem has a dark and morbid theme, however, it also injects a sense of honor and relief for the woman.  She has been perfected in death, and has her children with her, thus perfecting them as well.  The narrator wants to get across that this woman sees the death of herself and her children as a kindness, even possibly as something beautiful.  Plath uses the previously discussed rhetorical devices in order to present death in a less aggressive posture; this can be linked to her state of mind, being that only one week after writing this poem, Plath committed suicide herself.  This is a poem that takes on the abrasive subject of death and forces the audience to acknowledge a scene that is otherwise covered up so that it does not have to  be dealt with.  
