Sylvia Plath’s poem “Tulips” was published in 1965 and in her book “Ariel”, her second collection of published poetry. This collection of poetry was published two years after Plath’s death. Described by critics as “intensely personal”, Plath addresses themes of motherhood, marriage, depression, and sexuality. 

To understand and analyze “Tulips”, we must further understand the genre of poetry and movement Sylvia Plath’s work was associated with, which was the “Confessional poetry” movement. Confessional poetry emerged in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, defined by the use of the personal or “I”. Aside from Plath, other of her fellow contemporaries that were associated with the movement were Anne Sexton, Robert Lowell, and W.D. Snodgrass. Additionally, Confessional poetry addressed subject matter that was not openly discussed in American poetry, such as personal experiences and feelings on death, trauma, mental health, and relationships through an autobiographical lens. 

In “Tulips”, Plath starts off the poem anthropomorphizing tulips as “too excitable” and mentioning that “winter is here”. The use of the colour white is referenced throughout the poem as in the first stanza she describes the room she is in to be too white due to the walls and bed both being white. Describing the outside to appear as “snowed in”, this elicits us to picture a white setting while reading the poem. The excitable tulips contrast against the quiet, peaceful, and white atmosphere Plath creates. Further we read, we learn that the author is staying at a hospital, possibly waiting for a procedure as she mentions giving her history to the anesthetist and day-clothes to the nurse. 

Later in the second stanza, the colour white is still referenced throughout as she describes the whiteness of eyelids and the white on nurse’s caps. She compares her head that is between the pillow and sheet like an “eye between two white lids that will not shut”. Plath berates the pupil for being burdened to take everything in. It can be questioned if the pupil of an eye or the metaphorical pupil, herself, is being described as stupid. 

Contrasting with the anthropomorphizing of the tulips, she compares her body to a pebble for the nurses taking care of her. Saying they tend to her as “water tends to the pebbles it must run over”, an act that is done innately, that is done routinely, and that is done because it must be done to progress to the next routine. As Plath describes the numbness the nurses are giving her with their needles, she swiftly changes our attention from the nurses to her baggage, both metaphorical and literal. She expresses she has lost herself, and she is sick of her baggage and swiftly moves us from thinking about her personal baggage to the literal baggage of her patent leather overnight case laying her the room. 

Slowly we become aware of the feelings of loss and sadness within Plath in the fourth stanza as she describes letting things slip and comparing herself to a 30-year old cargo boat who is hanging on. Additionally, feeling swabbed away with the things she loves that are associated with her as she describes them leaving out of her sight as the water goes over her head and drowns her. Though the things she loved are taken from her, she ends the stanza stating she is in such a pure state she is like a nun now. She has committed to living a life where she has removed everything she desires, like a nun, to reach a deeper relationship with not God, but with the feelings of isolation. 

Furthermore, she embraces this feeling of emptiness and detachment, stating she wants nothing, including flowers, as she just wants to lie with her hands turned up. She describes the state she is in as peaceful, as this state she is in asks nothing of her, such as who she is, who she belongs to, or what she possesses. 

Plath brings back the discussion of tulips and describes how the redness of the tulips hurts her. The red of the tulips contrasts against the whiteness she was describing of the setting she is in throughout the poem. She describes the appearance of the tulips to be irritating, like an “awful baby,” as it talks to her own wounds. She accuses the tulips of consuming the oxygen she needs, making her feel smaller and worse. Ever further, describing how the tulips filled her space with loud noise and shifted her attention that was before happy, playing, and resting without committing itself, to the tulips. 

In the final stanza, she describes the walls as warming themselves. She wishes that the “tulips” could be behind bars, comparing them to a dangerous animal and comparing the opening of the mouth of an African cat. She describes her own heart as opening and closing due to their sheer love of her. She is aware her body wants her to be alive and function, but she wants to disappear. 

Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips” is an emotion-evoking poem that is defined by its autobiographical nature and use of vivid imagery. The juxtaposition of being hospitalized and taken care of to heal and be alive but also dealing with your own internal struggle of wanting to disappear and not hold on anymore is prevalent in the poem. It depicts a personal mental narrative of what Sylvia Plath went through with her own struggle with Depression, personal and resonates with many. 

Check out the poem here. 

Contributing Writer: Ahalya Ravichandran

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Feature Image: 

The Australian National Maritime Museum on Unsplash