Analysis Of Edge By Sylane Plath

A Woman Troubled

When first reading “Edge”, one will immediately be able to note that the poem’s flow is very peculiar. This is, in a very large part, due to the brevity and abstractness of each stanza throughout this piece of work. Plath is immediately able to make the reader think by organizing the flow of the poem in such a unique style. At first it is hard to pay attention to the contents of the poem without being distracted by the organization of it. Although it may appear pointless at first, there is a reasoning behind the structure and stylistic tendencies; “Edge” conveys a very dark and a very bleak tone throughout its entirety. Tone can be shown through some very subtle, and some rather obvious events throughout the poem. The

At first glance, the reader will see that the author decided to pen the poem in the third person. It becomes clear that the narrator is very familiar with the woman in the poem, and that she seems to be heavily opinionated on the events throughout the reading. When one thinks of the third person point of view, one thinks of the narrator tending to be more objective in their narration, but it is most certainly clear that the narrator, too, believes that this woman has immortalized her perfection through the means of suicide. Immediately, the poem stresses that the woman has perfected her life through death, which implies that she did not do anything wrong, or disgrace anyone. “The woman is perfected”. Such a blanket statement surely requires some analysis from the reader. The woman herself never speaks about the tragedy that has occurred in the poem. Readers are urged to side with the narrator from the very beginning of the poem. As the poem goes on, the details that are revealed become more horrifying. The woman appears to have poisoned her children. It is said in such a way that the narrator seems to not even acknowledge the gravity of the situation. Clearly the woman in this poem was a deeply troubled individual, but the narrator