Poem for a Birthday


"Poem for a Birthday" is a poem by American poet Sylvia Plath, dated 7 November, 1959 and first appearing in the collection The Colossus and Other Poems published by Heinemann in 1960, by Alfred A. Knopf in 1962, and by Faber & Faber in 1976.

Contents

"Poem for a Birthday" is composed of seven individually titled poems:
  • "Who"
  • "Dark House"
  • "Maenad"
  • "The Beast"
  • "Flute Notes from a Reedy Pond"
  • "Witch Burning"
  • "The Stones"

Background

According to biographer Caroline King Barnard "Poem for a Birthday" was written "during the fall of 1959 at Yaddo, following Plath's summer trip across the United States and just before her return to England." On October 22, 1959, Plath recorded in her notebook her struggle to develop the material that would emerge as "Poem for a Birthday":
This notebook entry was made just five days before Plath’s 27th birthday. On November 5, Plath exalted: "Miraculously, I wrote seven poems in my 'Poems for a Birthday' sequence."

Interpretation

"Maenad", the third in the series of poems that comprise "Poem for a Birthday", invokes the Maenad, in which the speaker "assumes the character of maenadic woman, frenzied and raging, throughout the seven-poem sequence." Here the maternal figure is indifferent to her offspring:
"The Stones", the final poem in "Poem for a Birthday", was the last work of poetry Plath wrote in America, and marks an inflection point in her literary development. Ted Hughes, reflecting on Plath’s literary output, commented on the significance of "The Stones":
Hughes adds that "The Stones", in particular, represents "the first eruption" that produced the poems that appear posthumously in Plath's Ariel.