Georgia Amick

Professor Phillips

English 101

14 Feb. 2016

"Edge"

Sylvia Plath wrote the poem "Edge" in 1963.  Plath was an American poet and produced many works throughout her life, the first written when she was very young.  Throughout her life, Plath was struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts and took her own life at an early age. The poem Edge, which has undertones of suicidal contemplation, was one of Plath's final works.  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 that she feels self-satisfied with her actions.

The reader can infer that the subject of the poem has killed herself.   This interpretation may be drawn initially from the first and second stanzas "Her dead | Body wears the smile of accomplishment". These lines state outright that the woman is dead and the narrator is explaining the scene.  The lines also show that the woman in the poem felt accomplished and happy with her death. Within the second stanza Plath also refers to the "Greek necessity" which is believed to be an allusion to the concept that suicide was an honorable death to the Greeks, as well as the preferred death to many. The narrator in the beginning uses 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 first line says that she has been "perfected" and to represent the woman having just died, in the second stanza the narrator uses the term "accomplishment."  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.  The deceased are normally seen as unsightly and feared, not as a beautiful garden. 

 A hint that the woman has just killed her children is forwardly stated within the poem as "Each dead child coiled ... | One at each ... | Pitcher of milk, now empty" within the fifth and sixth stanzas.  This portion seems to imply that the woman depicted has poisoned her kids in order to ensure they die with her. 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.'  What Plath writes as "the night flower" could be referring back to the rose that the woman and her children were just depicted as.  The dead woman and children are the only flowers left in the garden.  Also, when the narrator explains "From the sweet, deep throats of the night flower" that could be a metaphor for the audience to connect the pungent and recognizable smell of a rose, to this new smell of death.    

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 closing flower 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 kids. Bringing them in close to her and unifying all of them in death.  It is believed that the woman is protecting her children because the metaphor of a rose was made; when a rose closes it is to protect itself from the cold and other elements, to try and preserve what's left, possibly comparable to a mother wanting to preserve her children from the harsh elements of the world.  The simile also goes back into the idea that the woman sees death as something to be desired.  In the fourth stanza, "Feet seem to be saying: | We have come so far, it is over" suggests that the death is a relief from a hard life; her feet have traveled and toiled so far and they finally are receiving relief.  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, which is often explained as the "lizard brain" and a writhing reaction as a last ditch effort of self-preservation and so this could be a reference to that, and it even explains why she worded it as, "Each Dead child coiled ... " in the fifth stanza.   Calling her children serpents specifically rather than another, more kind comparison, could be a biblical reference.  Especially because Plath used the term "serpent" rather than snake, there is a quick comparison to the Garden of Eden when the serpent tempted Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge; and after eating the fruit, Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden and became sinful and also took on death.  Because Plath is using unlikely comparisons to mean something other than what they are normally compared to, this could be a reference to redemption.  These serpents, unlike the serpent in the garden, have not deceived nor have they been the cause of being cast out of the "holy land", they are the discontinuation of sin and are dying with Eve within the garden.  There is finally redemption of the serpent before the death of Eve.  

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.  And finally, the night flower being a sweet death that 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 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 its 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.  Plath could have made this comparison because of her own contemplations of suicide; she created this woman to attempt to normalize or articulate her own feelings on the subject.

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.  This use of personification is perhaps simply for showing that the woman was happy with her death.  Plath possibly used the term "body" (rather than the woman) to smile because it continues the theme that her soul is now free from her body, it has escaped and been relieved of life. An example proving that her soul is released from her body 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 separation between soul and body, her feet (or body as a whole) have finally stopped and she has reached the end of the road, she has reached the Garden of Eden.  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.  The woman's feet could also be a metaphor for the troubles in her life.  These feet are not depicted as beautiful, pampered feet; they are presented as feet that have been through so much and are in need of reprieve.  They are feet that are tired and warn, thankful to be able to say, "It is over".  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, congealing and stopping these people.  The narrator then describes how "odors bleed | from the sweet, deep throats of the night flower."  To bleed and to have throats are not characters of plants, but 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 this word choice is just meant to represent 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 but understanding eye.  This personification extends into the beginning of the final stanza when the narrator says, "She is used to this sort of thing."  A moon can certainly not get used to any kind of situation, but the narrator simply uses this personification to express the unconcern of the universe and the "small-ness" of this woman's subjectively big actions.  The moon provides objectiveness to the poem that makes the reader almost callous.  It takes it from this view of a dejected and dark act, to a bigger picture of no worry for this woman.  Plath may have done this intentionally to maybe give a small piece of relief in her own way for those that have been left behind.  Death is not new or surprising and should not be glorified or feared. 

Plath's poem has a dark and morbid theme; however, it injects a sense of honor and relief for the woman.  She has been perfected in death, and has her children with her.  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 and redemptive.  Plath uses the previously discussed rhetorical devices in order to present death in a less aggressive posture.  This view can be linked to her state of mind, 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 a topic that is not readily discussed by most.  
