Re-reading of ‘A Birthday Present’

Re-read A birthday Present. By means of close depth psychology of the language of this numbers, demonstrate how Plath achieves her effects in this poesy, and by means of sketch reference to whiz or deuce opposite poems, say how exemplary of her typography you find it.Plaths poem A Birthday Present creates binary oppositions of images by exploitation antithesis. An example of antithesis in this poem is when the teller asks, is it ugly, is it beautiful? The adjectives ugly and beautiful atomic number 18 opposing images. The structure of this phrase is mirror in the line to a lower place when the narrator asks, has it breasts, has it edges? These two images be opposite as when we imagine breasts they are round and smooth and not sharp like an edge. By using this lingual device Plath creates a seesaw effect between positive (beautiful) and disallow (ugly) lexis. Plath uses this device of conflicting lexis throughout the poem creating a tension.Furthermore, it can in addi tion be said that Plath uses these binary oppositions on a more knotty level to create the alkali of good vs. evil. This profitup can be seen in some of Plaths different poems. Take Face Lift or aurora Song for example, the theme of good and evil is represented by the images of babies she juxtaposes with those of death. The same binary opposition of images is used in A Birthday Present when the narrator says, fresh as babies bedding and glittering with dead breath. Again the two juxtaposed images are of death and babies. It can therefore be said that this theme is typical of Plaths writing and is probably influenced by the miscarriage she suffered prior to writing these poems.Another device that Plath employs for a specific effect in this poem is her use of the personal pronoun you. The narrator questions, Is it impossible for you to let something go and concord it go whole? and, Must you kill what you can? Many other writers use this device to achieve the desired effect of involving the audience as it addresses them directly. However Plath also has another motive. On first glance one may assume that the narrator is questioning the present as it is the probable focus of the narrator throughout the poem. However, considering the number of references to god throughout the poem, (My God what a laugh, But my god, the clouds are like cotton.) one could pass judgment that the question is actually aimed at God.Moreover, the theme in A Birthday Present of questioning God can be linked to some of Plaths other poetry. Plaths father died when she was a young child. From studying her life I free-base out that she loved and idolised her father. In her poems Daddy and Full fathom Five Plath contracts clear-sighted suggests that she now sees her father as a God-like figure. In Full Fathom Five she writes, You defy other Godhood. I walk dry on your kingdoms circumvent, when talking to her father. This could therefore be evidence that although she may seem to be addressing the birthday present with questions in this poem she is really questioning to her Dad. The theme of Dad arises in many of Plaths poems and so this poem is typical of her writing. like many of Plaths other poems she uses prosopopoeia in A Birthday Present to make an inert object appear to have a life of its own. The narrator is describing the present when she says, I feel it looking. I feel it thinking. The two verbs are actions that only a living person could do. Plath, however uses them to make the present in the poem come alive. The literary device of personification is typical to some of Plaths other poems. One example is in her poem Cut where she personifies her thumb by referring to it as Little pilgrim, Saboteur and Kamikaze man, before reminding us at the end of the poem that it is just a Thumb stump. This is therefore a device that Plath uses typically in her writing.In conclusion, many of the themes and ideas found in A Birthday Poem can also be found and mir rored in Plaths other poetry. She also uses a range of literary and linguistic devices in this poem that is typical of her writing.