Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In Sylvia Plath's poem "A Secret! A Secret! / How Superior," readers encounter an enigmatic narrative that appears to grapple with power, identity, and concealment. Plath adopts a tone of intrigue and tension, injecting the poem with phrases that seem almost surreal in their imagery. Through its labyrinthine stanzas, the poem takes the reader on a voyage through a mindscape where secrets-real or imagined-loom large, capable of erupting into chaos or catastrophe.

The poem begins with an immediate assertion, "A secret! A secret! / How superior." This declaration lays the groundwork for the layers of meaning to follow. The secret grants a sense of power, superiority, and the first stanza introduces the characters involved as "blue and huge, a traffic policeman" and another with "one eye," creating an immediate power dynamic and disparity. The secret is described as a "Faint, undulant watermark," suggesting it is both elusive and permanent.

The narrative then spirals into the realm of the surreal, questioning whether this secret would show in "the black detector," and how it relates to images as disparate as "the African giraffe" and "the Moroccan hippopotamus." These global symbols seem to comment on the ways in which secrets and power dynamics manifest across different landscapes and cultures. The animals "stare from a square, stiff frill," perhaps a critique on their reduction to mere decorative objects, their own secrets stamped out by human hands.

As the poem progresses, the secret takes different forms-an "extra amber / Brandy finger," a "knife that can be taken out," an "illegitimate baby" with a "big blue head." Each transformation of the secret explores a different aspect of human emotion, from desire and intimacy to violence and vulnerability. The secret, as versatile as it is, represents suppressed feelings, the unsaid, and the unseen. It's palpable yet indefinable, encapsulating the complexities of human relationships and personal anxieties.

The climax of the poem comes with the lines, "My god, there goes the stopper! / The cars in the Place de la Concorde- / Watch out! / A stampede, a stampede!" These lines bring the tension to a fever pitch. The secret, once confined, can no longer be contained. It triggers chaos, much like repressed emotions or unspoken truths that, when finally revealed, disrupt the balance of relationships and realities.

The final lines-"Dwarf baby, / The knife in your back. / 'I feel weak.' / The secret is out"-conclude the poem on a note of eerie inevitability. The secret, whatever it was, has made its exit, leaving in its wake a feeling of weakness and betrayal. Like many of Plath's works, this poem does not offer easy answers but leaves readers with a lingering sense of unease and a multitude of questions.

By examining the complexities of concealment and revelation, Sylvia Plath crafts a poem that is a rich tapestry of human emotion and complexity. Through its intricate structure and surreal images, "A Secret! A Secret! / How Superior" captures the intricacies of what it means to harbor a secret, questioning whether the burden of concealment is worth the momentary feeling of superiority it might grant.

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