Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In Sylvia Plath's poem "Who," the title serves as an overarching question that haunts the narrative, directing the reader's attention to matters of identity and existential questioning. The poem doesn't offer a straightforward answer but rather delves into a myriad of images that evoke feelings of stagnation, loss, and longing for a clearer sense of self. In doing so, the title becomes an integral part of how we interpret the narrative thread woven through the poem.

October, with its themes of harvest and preparation for winter, is described not as a time of abundance but as a period of emptiness: "The month of flowering's finished. The fruit's in, / Eaten or rotten. I am all mouth." Here, the speaker describes herself as "all mouth," hinting at a voracious desire for something-perhaps for answers to the existential questions implied by the poem's title.

The setting of a shed "fusty as a mummy's stomach" becomes a microcosm of a world filled with decay and lifelessness, where the speaker feels disturbingly at home. The speaker wishes to blend into this environment of "dead heads," of "cabbageheads" and "mouldering heads," perhaps to escape the anxiety that comes with questions of identity and purpose-the "Who" that the title suggests.

The speaker's language is often bodily and at times grotesque, adding to the atmosphere of decay and stagnation. She speaks of "wormy purple," "mothy pelts," and "veins white as porkfat," utilizing a lexicon of deterioration and organic waste. These visceral images serve as a counterpoint to the abstract existential questioning suggested by the title. If the title asks "Who," the body of the poem seems to answer: we are decaying matter, physical and finite.

Yet interspersed among these somber images are glimpses of a yearning for connection and transformation. The speaker acknowledges a longing for maternal comfort: "Mother, you are the one mouth / I would be a tongue to." This line, intimate and unsettling, represents a wish for unity, a return to an original state of oneness that offers an escape from the difficult questions of individual identity.

The poem concludes with a reminiscence about childhood, a time when the world seemed filled with "such enormous flowers, / Purple and red mouths, utterly lovely." Here, the speaker's past contrasts sharply with the world she currently inhabits. These memories, however, are as transient as the decay she describes-they "light me up like an electric bulb. / For weeks I can remember nothing at all."

In the end, the title "Who" becomes a haunting echo that underscores the poem's themes of existential questioning, of grappling with identity amidst a landscape of physical decay and emotional detachment. It leaves the reader with more questions than answers, and in doing so, encapsulates the profound uncertainties that make the poem so unsettlingly resonant.

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