Sylvia Plath Child's Park Stones

Sylvia Plath is not only one of the most influential and inspired young woman writer of the 21st century, she is one of my favorite poets. Her Pulitzer prize winning talent is undeniable and though she took her own life at 30 she had an amazing following in the literary community. Her works usually encircled deep emotion and reflected her obsession with death. In Child's Park Stones we can see the theme of death and resilience can be seen through the intensity of the description of the "park".  The stones are shown as unwavering, solid, throughout the changing seasons and carelessness of their owners. The frost and the heat have not destroyed them nor changed them. Plath describes them as immovable with the line "No man's crowbar could uproot them"(line 27), then unchanging with the lines "their beards are ever- Green. Nor do they, once in a hundred Years, go down to drink the river: No thirst disturbs a stone's bed."(28-39). The definitive statement that no thirst disturbs a stone's bed implies that the common necessity of water to all organisms does not apply here. This is a very strong subliminal reference to herself, she herself a rock, unchanging and immovable, does not need the same necessities as other creatures around her. Plath even goes so far as to almost trivialize the need or craving for something that is one of the basic requirements for life. A further allusion to herself being drawn by this piece is the format used, the use of semi colons and commas allow ideas to be stretched and allows her to add more description and depth to each element she illustrates. Plath uses subliminal personal allusions, descriptive and moving diction, and punctuation that seems to elongate and further portray the content of the poem. I found this poem to be very moving and effective when analyzed properly.