Example research essay topic: Rhyme Scheme Second Stanza - 1,163 words

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"Ariel" possesses power and importance, a certain element of orgasmic stress to the degree to which the horseback ride Plath once took becomes something morea ride into the abyss of the unknown, a stare back into the eye of the sun, an odyssey to death, a stripping of personality and selfhood, a sort of blatant exposition. To treat "Ariel" as a confessional poem is to suggest that its actual importance lies in the horse- ride taken by its author, in the author's psychological problems, or in its position within the biographical development of the author. None of these issues is as significant as the imagistic and thematic developments rendered by the poem itself. Probably the finest single construction of Plath, "Ariel" has articulate precision and depth of its images. In its account of the ritual journey toward the center of life and death, Plath perfects her method of leaping from image to image in order to represent mental process. The sensuousness and concreteness of the poem the "Black sweet blood mouthfuls" of the berries; the "glitter of seas " is unmatched in contemporary American poetry.

We see, hear, touch, and taste the process of disintegration: the horse emerging from the darkness of the morning, the sun beginning to rise as Ariel rushes uncontrollably across the countryside, the rider trying to catch the brown neck but instead "tasting" the blackberries on the side of the road. Then all the rider's perceptions are thrown together: the horse's body and the rider's merge. She hears her own cry as if it were that of a child and flies toward the burning sun that has now risen. To a reader who is unaware of Plath's biography ARIEL would probably most immediately call to mind the "airy spirit" who in Shakespeare's The Tempest is a servant to Prospero and symbolizes Prosperos control of the upper elements of the universe, fire and air. And seen from a more intimate level, ARIEL was the name of her favorite horse, on whom she weekly went riding. The two reflections about the name ARIEL have often been noticed and pointed out, with the emphasis, from a critical perspective, being placed on the biographical referent.

But there is another possible referent in the title of the poem, which no one has yet noted, although the poet, apparently, went out of her way to make reference, even obvious reference, to it. I refer to ARIEL as the symbolic name for Jerusalem. ARIEL in Hebrew means "lion of God. " She begins the second stanza of the poem with the line "Gods lioness, " which seems to be a direct reference to the Hebrew or Jewish ARIEL. Clearly from a close dissection of Plath's writings we find that she was obsessed with Jerusalem and the Jews, as is indicated in many of her poems. Indeed, some of the imagery which informs the passage concerning "ARIEL" in the Book of Isaiah (29: 1 - 7) appears to have been drawn on directly by Plath for her imagery in her poem "ARIEL. " In Isaiah 29 - 5 - 6 we read, And in an instant, suddenly, You will be visited by the Lord of hosts With thunder and with earthquake and great noise, With whirlwind and tempest, And the flame of a devouring fire In short, then, the poet seems to be combining these three references to "ARIEL" in her poem, and creating a context where each of the possible meanings enriches the others. She even seems to imply this when she says, in the second stanza, "How one we grow. " Each of the three "Ariel's" contributes its part to the totality of the poem, and each of them merges into the others so that, by the end of the poem, they are all "one. " In short, then, the poet seems to be combining these three references to "ARIEL" in her poem, and creating a context where each of the possible meanings enriches the others.

She even seems to imply this when she says, in the second stanza, "How one we grow. " Each of the three "Ariel's" contributes its part to the totality of the poem, and each of them merges into the others so that, by the end of the poem, they are all "one. " Now, of these three references to "ARIEL, " the two that seem most fruitful in terms of an analysis of the poem appear to be the autobiographical and the Biblical In terms of the autobiographical overtones, the poem can be seen as what apparently it is in fact account of the poets going for a ride on her favorite horse. Each of the details she mentions with respect to the ride (at least through the first six stanzas) can be seen as exact reporting of what it is like to ride a horse. The last five stanzas of the poem obviously move beyond the literal telling of taking a horseback ride and move into something which partakes of the mystery whereby the rider experiences something of the unity which is created between horse and rider, if not literally, at least metaphorically. This change in the theme of the poem is signaled both by a change in tone and by a change in technique, and specifically by the break in the rhyme scheme John Frederick Nims points out that: The use of rhyme in ARIEL, is very different. In some poems it is ghostlier than ever. But more often it is obvious: rhyme at high noon.

The same sound may run on from stanza to stanza, with much identical rhyme. "Lady Lazarus" illustrates the new manner. The poem is printed in units of three lines, but the rhyme is not in her favorite terzarima pattern. Six of the first ten lines end in an n-sound, followed by a sequence in long e, which occurs in about half of the next twenty-two lines. Then, after six more as, we have ls ending eleven of fourteen lines, and then several rs, leading into the six or more air rhymes that conclude the sequence. Almost Skeltonian: the poet seems to carry on a sound about as long as she can, although not in consecutive lines.

Now up to the seventh stanza of the poem (and continuing on through the remainder of the poem once the transitions has been made in the seventh stanza, "White / Godiva, I unreal / Dead hands, dead stringencies"), the rhyme scheme has been, for the most part, "regular" in terms of the slant rhymes Nims has suggested, each stanza having two lines which rhyme, given Plath's approach to rhyme. "darkness" / "distance, "grow" / "furrow, "arc" / "catch, "dark" / "Hooks, "mouthfuls" / "else, "air" / "hair, "I" / "cry, "wall" / "arrow, " and "drive" / "red. " It is true that the rhymes do not all fit the categories Nims has set forth, although some of them do. Where the rhymes do no...

Research essay sample on Rhyme Scheme Second Stanza