Situate the Poem Background Publishedwritten in 1959 Colossus and other poem Sylvia Plath 19321963 30 years old Commits Suicide 4 years after poem is writtenpublished Structure changed in 1962 after discovering her ID: 807131
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Slide1
The Eye Mote
An IB English Presentation
Slide2Situate the Poem
Slide3Background
Published/written in 1959
Colossus and other poem
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) (30 years old)
Commits Suicide (4 years after poemis written/published)Structure changed in 1962, after discovering her husband was cheating
Slide4Specific Background
Sylvia Plath was fond of horseback riding in her youth.
During one of her rides, she got something in her eye (a mote), which may have served as inspiration for this poem.
Plath also began falling into state of depression at this time, which can be described as a cause for the writing of the poem.
Slide5Basic Structure
5 stanzas - 6 lines per stanza
Free verse
Tone changes throughout poem
HappyPainfulNostalgia
Slide6Motif - Horses
The Eye-Mote
Blameless as daylight I stood looking
At a field of
horses
, necks bent, manes blown,
Tails streaming against the green
Backdrop of sycamores. Sun was striking
White chapel pinnacles over the roofs,
Holding the
horses
, the clouds, the leaves
Steadily rooted though they were all flowingAway to the left like reeds in a seaWhen the splinter flew in and stuck my eye,Needling it dark. Then I was seeingA melding of shapes in a hot rain:Horses warped on the altering green,
Outlandish as double-humped camels or unicorns,Grazing at the margins of a bad monochrome,Beasts of oasis, a better time.Abrading my lid, the small grain burns:Red cinder around which I myself,Horses, planets and spires revolve.Neither tears nor the easing flushOf eyebaths can unseat the speck:It sticks, and it has stuck a week:I wear the present itch for flesh,Blind to what will be and what was.I dream that I am Oedipus.What I want back is what I wasBefore the bed, before the knife,Before the brooch-pin and the salveFixed me in this parenthesis;Horses fluent in the wind,A place, a time gone out of mind. Sylvia Plath (1959)
Freedom
Slide7Poem’s Purpose
Slide8Thesis
The purpose is to recount the event of a splinter entering the speaker’s eye, which permanently distorting their view of the idyllic “field of horses.” It pains them that they cannot remove this “speck.” Now, the persona is stuck wishing they could go back to the time before the mote entered their eye.
Slide9Allusion to Hamlet
“A
mote
it is to trouble the mind’s
eye” Horatio (Act 1 Scene 2)“In my mind’s eye, Horatio” Hamlet (Act 1 Scene 2)
Slide10Allusion - The Mote and the Beam
Proverb in Gospel of Matthew
Emphasizes the necessity of self-reflection before the analysis of others.
“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerst not the beam that is in thine own eye.”
- Self reflection can prevent hypocrisy -
Slide11Allusion - Œdipus
“I dream that I am Oedipus” (line 24)
Oedipus is repulsed by his sight when it reveals to him more information than he is prepared to receive.
““Before the bed, before the knife, before the brooch-pin and the salve” (Line 26-27).
The speaker further alludes to Oedipus.
Confirms that while it is important to not become self-obsessed, it is impossible to “un-see” the full perspective.
Slide12Structure Lines 1-15
First 15 lines are in the past tense
First three stanzas are connected
Enjambment line 6-7
Line break lines 12-13Meter is inconsistentLines vary between 8 and 12 syllables
Slide13Structure Lines 16-30
There is a shift to the present tense in line 16
Ends of 3rd and 4th Stanza have full stops
Slide14Structure Lines 16-30
Metre:
Lines 16-17 have 9 syllables
Lines 18-30 have 8 syllables
Line 29 has 7 syllables
Slide15Simile
“Blameless as daylight I stood looking” (Line 1)
Connotation of daylight
Blameless = innocence
“Away to the left like reeds in a sea” (Line 8)Freedom“Outlandish as double-humped camels or unicorns (Line 13)
Outlandish - unfamiliar, foreign, bizarre
Slide16Visual Imagery
Stanza 1 - nature, serene
Blameless as daylight I stood looking
At a field of horses, necks bent, manes blown,
Tails streaming against the green
Backdrop of sycamores. Sun was striking
White chapel pinnacles over the roofs,
Holding the horses, the clouds, the leaves
Green sycamores in stanza 1 vs. burns/red cinder in stanza 3
Slide17Diction
“Outlandish as double-humped camels or unicorns” (Line 13)
Outlandish - something unfamiliar, bizarre
Double-humped camels and unicorns opposed to other outlandish creatures
Motif of horses“Beasts of oasis, a better time” (Line 15)
Oasis - water in the middle of the desert
Oasis doesn’t belong
Usage of the word beasts
Beasts outlandish, don’t belong
Change of tone
Descriptive, neutral- Stanzas 1 and 2
Painful - Stanzas 3 and 4
Nostalgia - Stanza 5
Slide18Diction
Before the brooch-pin and the salve
Fixed me in this parenthesis:
Horses fluent in the wind,
A place, a time gone out of mind
Slide19Alliteration and Anaphora
“What I want back is what I was” (line 25)
Emphasizes the inability to return to a status of being “blameless as daylight.”
“Before the bed, before the knife,/before the brooch-pin” (Lines 26-27)
Driving rhythm
Intensifies emotion
Desire to return to “a place, a time gone out of mind” (Line 30)
Slide20Closing
Should not focus on what there is to be seen, but on seeing themselves.
The Mote and the Beam, coupled with Oedipus and every other lit feature suggests that becoming obsessed with the analysis of another or personal surroundings could lead to forgetting important self-analysis.
However, Plath also warns that, once acquired, it is impossible to rid oneself of this ability to self-reflect.
This could, in turn, ruin the simple pleasures of seeing, very much like Oedipus.
Slide21A presentation by
Chris Natividad
Nick Eschen
Alexander Davis