Sylvia Plath reading her poems 1958
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- čas přidán 25. 02. 2018
- Sylvia Plath, reading her poems in Springfield, MA on April, 18 1958
Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 - February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. Born in Boston, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College at the University of Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a poet and writer. She married fellow poet Ted Hughes in 1956, and they lived together in the United States and then in England. They had two children, Frieda and Nicholas, before separating in 1962. Plath was clinically depressed for most of her adult life, and was treated multiple times with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). She took her own life in 1963.
Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, The Colossus and Other Poems and Ariel, and The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her death. In 1982, she won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Poems.
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0:43 Black Rook in Rainy Weather
2:39 The Lady And The Earthenware Head
5:00 Departure
8:50 The Disquieting Muses
14:00 Battle-Scene From The Comic Operatic Fantasy The Seafarer
15:31 On the Decline of Oracles
fyi the poem at 5:00 is actually "the ghost's leavetaking" not "departure".
@@tylerkaleolott she literally said departure of the ghost
@@cristimagda True but "departure" is an entirely different poem of hers. The poem she calls "Departure of the Ghost" in this video was first published under the title "The Ghost's Leavtakaking" in her book The Colossus in 1960, a few years after this recording. She must have changed the name before printing or something?
Thanks ♥️
@naierghasmi2764
I have heard this before, but I did not know how to leave a comment. It is exhilarating to hear her voice reading her poetry.
Thank you for this video.
Edith Plath is one of my favorite poets, among many.
Anne Sexton was brilliant. ❤
Ted and Edith blew sounds tainted with spitting words.
What flows of exuberant streams between them burned skins bleeding, a twilight dawned, never extinguished even after death of dark sleep beauty deep scorching roars, legs in a fetal position of wounds on wooden floors.
I love hearing Sylvia Plath reading her poetry. Poetry is meant to be heard. I'm grateful that we have recordings of her.
❤
Me too she great and beautiful
her prose and voice is absolutely immaculate
as is the poems themselves
Plath's use of the English language is something rarely encountered, and her voice conveys a confidence and authority. Yet, when we read her voluminous journals and letters (the former I find quite fascinating), we find a young woman trying to find her place in a world that is still dominated by men. She wants to be seen as feminine, yet challenge with her intelligence and power. Brilliant, and sadly tortured; best I think not to try and tear Plath apart, but to see her for the full person, and the gift she left behind.
And the woman she would have become without her tragic ending but then again, her words are all the more painful and raw when we know what ended her life. Sylvia had such a technical and elaborate vocabulary and I can get pulled in to a cadence that is somehow just the right pace for me to check that particular word, and then to ascribe the appropriate emotion that I feel should accompany it.Then, I get on Martian-Webster and see if I was even close.
Yes, sadly tortured, and not mentally insane at all, as is sometimes spoken about her. Indeed the world will have utmost poverty if they remove her words being read.
I agree, it is all about the poetry, the poems, it is so important to listen and or read the words, the punctuation, the line breaks, it's all about the prosody and the words she chooses to express herself with. First and foremost we must stick to the work, not the woman's story, the poetry transcends gender.
beautifully written. i couldn’t have said it better 🥲
Very well said…
8:35 her laugh is so beautiful
r o s e not really.
yes I agree, infectious and uplifting ~ good to know she had much happiness at times
It hurts to hear. Such a beautiful laugh taken by depression.
sylvia plath
reel 1
0:43 black rook in rainy weather
2:39 the lady and the earthenware head
5:00 departure/ghost’s leavetaking
8:50 the disquieting muses
14:00 battle-scene from the comic operatic fantasy the seafarer
15:31 on the decline of oracles
18:07 the triumph of wit over suffering
(21:20 conversation between plath and others)
22:07 on the difficulty of conjuring up a dryad
(24:14 conversation)
25:22 november graveyard
26:38 sow
28:53 spinster
reel 2
31:00 on the plethora of dryads
33:10 all the dead dears
(35:04 conversation, copyright announcements, signing off)
ted hughes
41:37 the men seeking experience enquires his way of a drop of water
44:20 the horses
47:07 famous poet
49:34 conversation
50:51 the jaguar
52:26 the dove-breeder
53:24 a modest proposal
55:07 meeting
56:17 conversation
57:19 wind
59:05 roarers in a ring
1:00:55 commentary, end
Absolute legend for the time stamps. Thank you
Thanks for this, seriously
@@eraserhead2063
❤
The genius of her poetic visions…the genius…the depth and multiple layers of it…and the haunting voice with which she broadcasts it… I think she’s a shingling example of the few poets who can get so possessed by their poetry that their delivery can be just as good or better than however the readers experience the poetry in their imaginations. Her talent to me is supernatural.
Sylvia Plath was introduced to me when I was a teenager little did I know the huge effect this sensitive woman would have in my long life !,,,thank you for this video,,,
Wow! Tell us MORE!
i’ve never heard her voice until now! so beautiful! it’s like a hybrid of natalie portman as jackie kennedy and british! i love it!
eleanor rigby I wonder why Americans changed their lovely accent so quickly into something strange now.
It's called the "Trans-Atlantic Accent" and it's pure affectation that was fashionable through the 1960s . . . You won't find any region in the English-Speaking world (i.e. -- the UK and US) where this is genuinely native vernacular.
I started crying the first time I heard her. My heart just erupted with emotion and I couldn't contain it!
@@nancyrose8028 ikr!!! Reading the bell jar now and it feels like i know her personally but hearing her voice seems strange. Cant wait to read the remaining book in this voice
Do listen to her reading of 'Daddy' - preceded by a short interview (BBC recording) - October 1962. czcams.com/video/paHmYyaY5XM/video.htmlsi=Vw1NjkccUmy44zIk
Sylvia plath..she became the first poet to win a Pulitzer Prize posthumously for the collected poems
her natural speaking voice was so different than the weird mid-atlantic accent she used to read her poems @7:50
i dislike poet voice affectation. its not so dissimilar to guitar face
I can't express how I adore her voice!!!
@@hegyesvivien3372 yes, both of them -in fact, all of them, me too
It has some pulsing, washing, continuous-like motion to it. Her recitation, I mean. Gives me an idea for how her writing feels. Feels... sounds.... well, you get the idea. Helps me understand the structure. Thank you Plath, and may you rest in peace.
I read my poetry and to me, my rhythm seems to always stay in the same rut. I’d be curious to hear how someone else would read me and thus, the dilemma I have is, Am I even a poet or a writer if only I read it? Would it exist without me and would it even make a sound if not for me willing it to the here, now, or then?
@@lisaeischens2352 There is such a thing as Poet Readers. They are extremely IMPORTANT and talented people. I hope you can find them. In San Francisco there was a group of them that got together to read. Amazing experience as if they channel the writers 'writing voice'.
Sylvia is not using an affected "trans-Atlantic accent" in particular. She's a Bostonian of her time. I swear if I close my eyes this is like listening to a more eloquent version of my grandmother.
I wonder is she your grandma on your father's or mother's side and how about your parents? Why do they "lose" the accent?
In spite of her young age... why does she sound a bit old fashion I wonder. 😒
@@pinkpanther7030 Because she was highly educated and knew how to enunciate properly and beautifully. Not the, "Yeah-yeah-yeah-uh'kay" blather of many of today's young women.
You can see her slip into a more relaxed American accent/pronunciation around 7:53 or so, when she’s talking to someone else (presumably Ted I’m guessing) and her speech is a lot more rhotic.
I believe it's a "mid-atlantic" accent.
It is absoutley great to have the recording man asking some questions in between. Wonderful to hear her answer.
That laugh at 7:54 ! 😭🥰 I LOVE hearing the in-betweens here !! Thank you!!
agreed!
The photo is of Barbara Laage, not Sylvia Plath.
Okey .
axiomist this is embarrassing!
Who ever is hot!
@@chortvozmite141 that's the spirit.
Silly not to have the actual image of S.P. What's with that?
I could fall in love with her just by listening to her voice.
Jeesh, i thought i was the only one so smitten
She is really something. Such a drag that someone so perfect committed suicide. At the very least there is this.
i did
@@briansmith9455 I agree with you. She was perfect.
Beautiful! Reminds me of Dylan Thomas the way she seems to taste and enjoy words! Remarkable poems! Thanks for posting! 🦋🍒🥰🍀😝🎶🎈🍇😀👍
That is NOT I repeat NOT Sylvia Plath in the photograph!!!!! Idk who that woman is but it certainly isn’t Sylvia!
this makes me angry.. it should be her in the picture.
No, it isn't Plath . . . but the model at least lured us to the audio treasure
It's the actress Barbara Laage. Someone made this mistake years ago and people have incorrectly attributed this likeness to SP ever since.
She is about fourteen or fifteen in the bikini picture where she is sunbathing in her back yard with the white house beside her... I don't think this is representative of her womanly suggestability, of her being a woman who is just beginning, at this point of the recording, as entering the realm of her larger I, her overpowering self-- the self that rocks the hardness of binaries... Why show her as a child? Why infantilize her while she sits in adolescence in a swimsuit? Either choose a picture for the time of the recording. Perhaps, the picture where she is at a party and she is blonde and wearing a scarf... or maybe just her as she sits beside Ted on the floor, waiting for him to read to her or the picture of her outside in Spain at her typewriter... The Hermes 2000, not the Royal... why a swimsuit? Why must we make her naked?
mickey morgan Doesn’t matter, this is so disrespectful
Just here paying my respects . I read her journals this summer. It had quite the effect on me
I love this. So very wonderful to hear Sylvia Plath's voice reading her poems. Love the casual conversation in between poems as well.
I love you, Sylvia.
I wish there was a recording of her reading her poem "Mad Girl's Love Song". I assume that there isn't.
That's a great photo of Sylvia Plath surrounded by all the books she wrote.
my favourite poet. just something else, to make me feel so much.
I don't know how I can even begin to express my gratitude to you for posting this!! When I saw it today, I was so excited and filled with disbelief that I just sat here looking at it! I think I was afraid if I moved it might go away!😊 So, I had to calm myself before daring to click on it. My heart was pounding and I thought surely the video was a fake or some sort of misleading junk, as so many things on the internet are these days! So, I am really glad that I was wrong! (That's not her in the photo, is it?) That's partIy why I doubted. Even though she could sometimes look very different in past photos, I didn't think this looked like her. But, I may be wrong! Anyway, I have been reading, researching, and enjoying Sylvia Plath for years! I have all of her published works and all of her recordings that I could find! I knew of this one, but it hasn't been available to purchase or even to hear that I knew of! So, that is why I was so excited and ever so grateful when I saw it here!! I could discuss her and her works much longer, but I will end this simply by saying you have made this Plathian very happy! 😊 I love you, Sivvy!
Right on, Nancy Rose . . . that picture is not Plath. Ever seen her artwork!?
How neat your response is. The dichotomy of this world is beyond my kin.
this was the most wholesome comment ive ever read on this website.
I wish Nancy Rose could come back to talk with us. I've been looking for a poem I can't find now, about her being met by a professor then ______, then too many to count. ❤ This is the only poet that saves me in the soul of my mind-heart.
@@mickeymorgan Yes, I have a small book of her sketches. Love them, too!
I was two days old when you read these Sylvia
A beautiful hour with Sylvia .Thank you
It is not an hour with Sylvia... Twenty minutes are with Ted...
this is absolutely great. Sylvia's poems before aeriel. too bad that there isn't any films of her.
Beautiful poetry. She is buried near where I live... rest in peace
Absolute marvel, diamont and gold all at once. Thank you Sylvia, thank you thepostarchive and thank you CZcams...so much !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much. This audio is awesome!
her words are so soothing but im too high to understand any of it.
Me too buddy
I have a very low center of gravity is all.
I can only understand it high.
Wow, you're so cool.
@@SpoonLegend I'm very impressed at your analysis of Sylvia Plath. You should be proud of yourself. I'm certain that you could write that kind of poetry and do everything that she did. I mean, why would it be difficult to write the kind of poems that influence the world of poetry even to this day? :)
To some life is a bus ride that you must take everyday, the ride would not be such an ordeal if one could meet friends along the way. But friends are fair weather companions and we are again left to count ravens on wires and listen to the sirens and the squeaky brakes of the trolley as it slows for the hurried masses.
I fall asleep to this... its so nice
it's absolutely lovely to listen to the poetess talking about her work while reading it
Poetess is an antiquated, sexist term. The word is poet.
@@vekkstar
Not in my world. She was a poetess ,just as Uma Thurman is an actress. We don’t have to bow to the PC brigade. Fascists!
@@MrFrampo56 It's not PC. Plath didn't refer to herself that way.
@@vekkstar
No, but I do , and always will.
Such beauty, such craft. This is my passion.
Astonishing find yesterday, thank you, thank you. Strange thing is I have written, very recently a short story about a daydream fantasy where I meet Sylvia Plath in my local library ..... and she recites some of her work and then we have a discussion ~ this recording is the reality of my daydream .... I can hardly believe it. Also I describe her 'reading' voice as being of needle sharp diction ~ and it is ~ but to now hear her natural speaking, everyday voice, tells me that she still had traces of her Massachusetts accent.... thank you again.
How fantastic! What a gift!
So touching I lovvvvvve this. Tranquil experience 😌
... you and your voice, beautiful treasure...
Red Comet brought me here. Engrossing, illuminating bio. Don’t be frightened - it has pictures.
Thank you so much for uploading. Plath sounds much more girlish and American than in her (two) 1960s interviews.
Thank you for this wonderful upload! Poetry should definitely be HEARD rather than just SEEN!
So true her voice is beautiful
Real makes u enjoy her poems
thank you xxxxx very inspiring xxxx
"I'd like my poems to be extremely musical and lyrical with a singing sound . . . ". I am smiling a Plath fan smile (I know that sounds a little corny). Within four years she would write some of the most musical poems ever composed.
Anyone who is struggling, I struggle too. All who want to die, I wish that for myself as well. Please feel our kinship, please please take a moment for our strange mindsets to settle into their sullen ceremony.
Instead, LIVE. Plath ceased but let the departure of our ghosts occur not idly but instead at its best time, not intentionally; because an intentional death is widely meaningless.
Death means not a thing unless it comes on accident. If you know why, if you know when, if you know how, what then is there to learn?
Continue. Continue. Continue. At all cost.
greatest treasure on CZcams
What a GEM!!
My biggest inspiration in writing
pure art.
Wow, I've only ever heard the BBC recordings made in the UK in the early 60s. This is amazing, thank you for uploading. Where on earth did you find this?
Yess, Like a blessing
I wish i could be as good as this poet i can only wish
You and me both....
I wouldn't really, not if it meant being tortured as she was
I absolutely adore Sylvia
I’m going to listen to her read these
Am reading a new book about her life, Red Comet. Hearing her voice makes it even more fascinating.
Wow, good to know. Do comets survive the best? :) May she never be a supernova! She already did the Gurgling Master award. Take her off the Circuit, oh Skeleton Dreamer.
what a remarkable voice
Im gonna buy ur whole collection
Ugh yes queen! 👑
11:46: "i found it really impossible...writing and teaching..."
12:07: "eating and sleeping when it happens, but writing most of the time"
Writing, fucking, eating, doing social nets, posting on stackoverflow___
Someone wrote on one of my monologue videos that I would portray Sylvia Plath very well. Honestly, I didn't know who she was. I've been searching her for a few hours now, though, and I have to say, being a poet/writer myself, she is quite a beautiful role model and that comment on my video is a divine compliment.
aurora.rockets 🖤
And your name is Aurora? Do you have red hair by any chance? :) Oh boy, it is a divine compliment! Please let us know if you do a film as Her! She said she felt she was channeling someone. I feel she was channeling "The Beginning Before You" sort of primordial Mother. Aurora is a perfect name!
You’re a poet and you’d never heard of Sylvia Plath ? Really ? Unbelievable, literally!
@@MrFrampo56 I know, crazy right? I guess to be a poet you don't necessarily need to know all the other poets out there. It's art. You just make what you feel.
She has a beautiful speaking voice and laugh.
Nothing more interesting and beautiful then this. If I could go back, I would try an save her. Tell her that bad days can turn into good, and it's ok to have negative thoughts. Its how we deal with those thoughts.
She had so much more to offer. I just think there were too many things going on, and she never learned how to deal well with her emotions. Sleeping pills were sustaining her on most days. Sleep deprivation can lead to the most awful thoughts, especially if they are there to begin with... Rest in Heaven Sylvia.
A rare and early reading by Ted Hughes begins 40 mins in. It's curious to note the difference in his style of delivery here - more declamatory and sonorous than later in life, even if it's true that his first two books were more musical than what came later.
I love her laugh
Could you please post a list of the poems Plath's reading?
One of the major poets
Does that picture really matter?. I mean, ok, it's not her, so what?. Can't you just stay away from stupid details and listen to what she wrote and read?, to what the interviewer asked her?. I'm a writer and I freaking love reading. I'm telling you, this woman had such an incredible sense of reality, truth and passion... it blows my mind. Reminds me SO MUCH of Alejandra Pizarnik (if you don't know her, you MUST read what Pizarnik wrote; she also committed suicide, at the age of 36). It's truly vexing to me to read so many comments about a bloody picture instead of what she created: pure art.
Yes it is fucking important! It’s unbelievable that there’s a photo of another woman. It’s utterly ridiculous.
Angel.
Preparing for literature coursework and therefore the search for audio books begins
I hate that I learned about ted Hughes at school instead of her. The UK needs to realise her importance
22:13 On the Difficulty of Conjuring up a Dryad
I really loved The Bell Jar. In fact, it's probably my favorite novel. However, I can't seem to understand her poems (or any poems for that matter). Can anyone give me tips on how to read poetry?
just search the poems name and the word 'analysis' you'll find lots of articles, paper, videos and comments that have people deciphering it
@@mathsisdeadtomenow Thanks, that's a nice suggestion! Normally I'd feel pretty icky about needing to use the Internet to read poems, but I guess I need to shove my ego to bypass this poetry illiteracy.
Who is watching in 2021
How is it that she wasn't accepted into Harvard for the writing seminar? I really wonder why she wasn't admitted given her level of talent.
Harvard is not that great, actually. There was NO PLACE for her!!!! except for The Land of Health!!!
Well, she won a scholarship to Cambridge - arguably that was more prestigious if you care about such things. She postponed doing a PhD but probably would have eventually, had she lived.
I would like to hear her poem "Pursuit".
Quite a posh and articulate voice this narrator has; I wouldn't wan...
Cool
Where was this recording made? Was it made specifically for the poetry archive at the library of congress?
Down with Orwell Up with Plath (a very short poem):
Down with Orwell, up with Plath
Down with Satire, up with wrath
'Plath' doesn't rhyme with 'wrath'.
for the love of god change the photo
Please amplify the sound.
That is not a photo of Sylvia Plath.
Noted
Why is a photo of someone else being used as backdrop to Sylvia's reading? Why not Sylvia, herself? Seems a tad disrespectful...but that's just me.
i love you.
dammit Sylvia, I still love you a year ago I loved you still do!
but why is it not a picture of sylvia
Oh I fucking love you
she sounds like the voice of Alice from Alice in Wonderland from 1951
Instagram: peterlovessylvia
Very stupid to have a photo of someone other than Sylvia b/c you will have people doubting that it's actually her voice.
Some youtubers are complete fools. Inexplicable.
Just fix it.
But they won't b/c they are proud of the 100K views - which isn't all that amazing for a video which has been up for over two years on a well-known person.
That image is not of Sylvia plath
12:14
45:00
28:45
Is that Plath in the photo? The face seems different.
No
that photo is not Plath!!!±
is that ted hughes voice...i didnt know he was scottish? !
Yes, his reading does seem slightly affected, from his natural Yorkshire tones..not exactly 'Scottish', more generally 'Celtic', perhaps influenced by Dylan Thomas? ( I swear, as I was writing this, that they all started mentioning Thomas...spooky coincidence)
I listen only sylvia
That's not Sylvia Plath!!
The girl in photo is NOT SYLVIA PLATH, she's Barbara Laage, French actress. The photo is from 1946 and SP was only 14 while BL was clearly older (26). This is an unbelievable mistake, they're totally different.