Theses and Dissertations
Issuing Body
Mississippi State University
Advisor
Lyons, Richard
Committee Member
Pierce, Catherine
Committee Member
Kardos, Michael
Date of Degree
5-2-2009
Original embargo terms
MSU Only Indefinitely
Document Type
Graduate Thesis - Campus Access Only
Major
English
Degree Name
Master of Arts
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Department of English
Abstract
This collection of original poetry is preceded by a critical introduction that includes an exploration of Sylvia Plath’s elegiac poems, particularly her failed attempts to respond to grief. Similarly, the following poems deal with failed attempts to assuage suffering and how one can address his or her need to be loved when that need is unmet. The essay follows Plath’s use of the traditional elegy to create her own elegiac poems about her dead father, using strategies such as mythologizing the dead or wishing to join the dead. Her strategy evolves into an exorcism of grief in her emotionally heavy poems, such as “Daddy” or “Lady Lazarus,” and later into an exploration into her speakers’ abject consciousness. The essay introduces my own poetry with its discussion of work that unapologetically confronts many forms of adversity, of inevitable anguish that follows, and of ways to respond.
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/11668/16281
Recommended Citation
Daniels, Kelly L., "Deep water, open water" (2009). Theses and Dissertations. 1260.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/1260