Ariel
Plath Sylvia Lyrics

Stasis in darkness.
I am alone in the dark, with nothing moving or changing around me.

Then the substanceless blue
Suddenly, I am surrounded by a vast, empty blue space.

Pour of tor and distances.
I feel a sense of overwhelming physical and emotional distance from everything around me, like pouring rain.

God's lioness,
Like a fierce lioness, I am powerful and strong, but simultaneously vulnerable and dependent.

How one we grow,
As we develop and mature, we become more and more alike, through shared experiences and hardships.

Pivot of heels and knees!—The furrow
Despite the struggles and traumas we face, we remain steadfast and continue to move forward, like a plow cutting through the ground.

Splits and passes, sister to
The plow splits through the earth like a sister moving through life, creating new paths and possibilities through struggle.

The brown arc
The earth's contours and crevices that have been carved and shaped overtime, like wrinkles and lines on a face.

Of the neck I cannot catch,
This slowly eroded path, like trying to catch something elusive that is forever out of reach.

Nigger-eye
A reference to the fruit of the 'Blackthorn tree', meant to symbolize a ripe yet bitter ordeal that must be endured.

Berries cast dark
These dark, tart berries that suggest suffering and grief, a harsh reminder of our fragility.

s—
The abrupt ending of the line, suggesting a loss of words or censored meaning.

Black sweet blood mouthfuls,
The fruit of the Blackthorn tree, so hard-won and painful to obtain that it is precious, like the lifeblood it resembles.

Shadows.
The shadows of our past, present, and future that loom over us, suggesting darkness and mortality.

Something else
A sense of something else, bigger and more powerful than oneself, a reminder of our place in the universe.

Hauls me through air—
A sudden, startling shift in perspective, as though something, perhaps death, is pulling us upwards and out of our physical bodies.

Thighs, hair;
The physical body, which is being torn apart into its component parts, as though being consumed by some great force.

Flakes from my heels.
The tiny pieces of ourselves that are shed as we move through life, like leaves falling from a tree.

White
The color white, which connotes purity and innocence, but may also suggest a blank, empty slate.

Godiva, I unpeel—
An allusion to Lady Godiva, suggesting a stripping away of the self and the things that keep us hidden or protected, as if revealing our most vulnerable selves.

Dead hands, dead stringencies.
The things that once restricted and bound us, now lifeless and without meaning.

And now I
A shift to the present moment, as though something momentous is about to happen.

Foam to wheat, a glitter of seas.
A transformation, as though becoming one with nature, like waves frothing up onto the shore or wheat rippling in the breeze.

The child's cry
The sounds of the innocent, representing the most pure and untainted parts of ourselves.

Melts in the wall.
The disappearance of the most innocent parts of ourselves into the harsh reality and coldness of the world.

And I
A return to the self, but transformed and changed by the experience of the poem.

Am the arrow,
A sense of purpose, focus, and direction, like a sharp, pointed arrow hurtling towards its target.

The dew that flies
The fleeting beauty and transience of life, like droplets of dew that quickly evaporate in the sun.

Suicidal, at one with the drive
The desire to fully embrace the transformative power of the world, even if it means risking everything, like a fearless leap of faith.

Into the red
The ultimate moment of sacrifice or death, like plunging into the warm, welcoming depths of the earth or a fiery, red sun.

Eye, the cauldron of morning.
The final transformation, into something new and different, like a cauldron boiling with powerful, elemental forces.