Blackberrying Essay & Criticism

Blackberrying Critical Overview

Much has been written about the relationship of Plath's personal life and her work. Although her poems at first glance seem to be about impersonal subjects, they often seem to contain a personal connection. Indeed, critics often find it difficult to interpret Plath's poems without drawing conclusions based upon her suicide and earlier breakdown. One of her most ardent supporters, A. Alvarez, however, cautioned against placing too much emphasis on the autobiographical aspects of Plath's poetry. While he praised her exploration of the themes of death and suicide, he added that he "was not in any sense meaning to imply that breakdown or suicide is a validation of what I now call Extremist poetry. No amount of personal horror will make a good poet out of a bad one." In the case of Plath, he noted: "The very source of her creative energy was, it turned out, her self-destructiveness. But...
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