Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Sylvia Plath's "Resolve" presents a quiet yet profound moment of determination amid the ennui and mist of everyday life. The poem begins by describing a seemingly ordinary day filled with mist and tarnish, a day when "no glory descends." The unserviceable hands waiting for the milk van, the one-eared cat, and the coal fire burning paint a vivid tableau of domesticity and stagnation. These elements form the backdrop against which the protagonist's resolve takes shape, offering a contrast between the inert and the intentional.

The phrase "Day of mist: day of tarnish" epitomizes the sense of dullness and grime that surrounds the speaker. The fire burns, but it does not seem to offer warmth or light that can pierce the mist of the day. Similarly, the "one-eared cat" laps its paw, invoking a sort of imperfect comfort. There's an air of weariness and resignation in these observations.

However, amid this banal setting, something else is happening. The "two water drops" poised on the stem of a rose bush act as a pivot in the poem, signaling a turn from passivity to action. The rose's "arched green stem" and "bent bow of thorns" suggest both beauty and the possibility of pain. Here Plath employs nature as a metaphor for life's challenges and complexities.

The cat "unsheathes its claws" and the "world turns," almost as if the universe is reacting to the speaker's impending resolve. It's a simple act that denotes preparedness, capturing a nuanced moment when decision crystallizes into action. The cat's claws, like the rose's thorns, suggest that there may be challenges ahead, but they are challenges that one must be prepared to face.

The final lines, "today / today I will not / disenchant my twelve black-gowned examiners / or bunch my fist / in the wind's sneer," disclose the nature of the speaker's resolve. She decides against surrendering to defeat or disillusionment, symbolized by the "twelve black-gowned examiners," who could be literal figures of authority or metaphorical representations of life's many challenges. The speaker also refuses to "bunch my fist in the wind's sneer," signaling a rejection of futile anger or rebellion against uncontrollable external circumstances.

The term "resolve" typically denotes a firmness of purpose, and in this poem, that purpose is to face the day's challenges without succumbing to disenchantment or futile anger. The speaker chooses to engage with life on its own terms, finding her own agency in how she responds to the world around her.

Plath masterfully captures this delicate emotional transition within the quotidian details of life, thereby elevating a simple moment of decision to something much more profound. By the end of the poem, the reader is left with a sense of quiet fortitude, a decision to face life with neither blind optimism nor cynical despair, but with a mature and realistic resolve.

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