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  • Essay / Sylvia Plath and Rainer Maria Rilke's views on everyday miracles in their poems

    In her 1960 poem "Black Rook in Rainy Weather", the American Sylvia Plath conveys the feeling that a miracle happens is produced in the form of a black tower. . The bird's beauty surprises her in a supernatural way on an otherwise dreary day, and she momentarily feels a connection with the natural and the supernatural. Generations earlier, in 1924, the Austrian-German writer Rainer Maria Rilke spoke of the need to believe in this kind of miracle in his poem "Just like the winged energy of pleasure." Rilke implores the reader to open himself to the heavenly with a child's heart and to look for miracles in ordinary ways of life. Both Plath's and Rilke's poems incorporate the theme of God communicating with human beings through mundane objects and experiences. Plath informs the reader of a particular chance encounter with the miraculous, while Rilke takes a more proactive approach to encountering, and even creating, miracles. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original EssayThe mood of the protagonist in “Black Rook in Rainy Weather” is characterized by rain. She walks during the day in a state of “total neutrality” while “walking stubbornly this season / From fatigue”. She is tired and weary of the world. She says she's "not expecting a miracle," but goes on to say "more." The use of more insinuates that there was a time when she fully expected miracles, a time, perhaps in her childhood, when she felt more in touch with God. In “Just Like the Winged Energy of Delight,” the mood of the poem is hopeful. Rilke writes of how a child's faith "carried him over many chasms early on." He tells the reader to recapture that childlike wonder and “now raise the boldly imagined arch / support the astonishing bridges.” The arch between humanity and God is not a solid structure built from the "backtalk / from the silent sky" that Plath desires in "Black Rook in Rainy Weather," but, according to Rilke, something that is " boldly imagined.” To experience the miraculous, one must be open to recognizing the divine: “letting yourself be carried away is not enough,” Rilke tells the reader. The black rook, an ordinary and common bird, briefly serves as a bridge between the celestial and the earthly. for Plath. She describes observing the bird "arranging and rearranging its feathers in the rain" and similar experiences in her life "as if a celestial burning took / possession of the most obtuse objects." Rilke also asserts that “the miracle does not lie only in the astonishing.” The protagonist of “Black Rook in Rainy Weather” is able to appreciate the magic of the moment because she allows herself to believe that the experience is out of the ordinary. In “Just Like the Winged Energy of Delight,” Rilke says that “working with things is not hubris/when building association beyond words.” He says that man must suspend his human pride and open himself to associations that extend beyond the ordinary, beyond words. As an adult, Plath no longer seeks “design” as she did in her youth, but allows herself to be “spotted”. the leaves fall as they fall. She is reluctant to draw much meaning from anything. Rilke, for his part, looks for design in the ordinary and, for him, “the pattern becomes denser and denser”. He works in construction associations. Where Plath settles for “The angel's long wait, / For this rare and random descent,” Rilke goes in search of the miraculous. He implores man to bridge the chasm between heaven and earth with these lines:, 2011.