This poem is included as a taught poem in the scheme of work, as it could be used for two questions.
A dead woman is described.
References: Many link this poem to the story of Medea, who killed her children to punish her husband Jason after he abandoned her when a King offered Jason his daughter, probably because of the Greek references (Medea did not also kill herself). Some claim this poem indicates that Plath considered killing the children as well as herself. The moon here may be seen as Plath’s mother, who is used to mourning. This is often claimed to be Plath’s last poem, written on the same day as ‘Balloons’ (5/2/63), but it is not certain which was last.
Links to Duffy/Larkin: death (Larkin)
Lang-Lit Points: clipped syntactic style typical of her later poems; semantic field of nature; tense usage, e.g. ‘is perfected’ rather than ‘is perfect’ – sense of a completed process, rather than a state of being.
