Essay on the poem "Cut" by Slyvia Plath
The poem ‘Cut’ by Sylvia Plath is about her accidentally slicing her thumb while chopping up some vegetables. It includes the changing feelings and moods she experiences in this ordeal.
Plath has very cleverly used similes and metaphors to create clear images in the readers mind. For example in stanza two she uses a simile to describe the left over piece of skin on her thumb. She says, “Except for a sort of hinge of skin, a flap like a hat.” This gives a vivid image of a slab of her thumb only slightly connected by a thin piece of skin. It can be flopped back and forth just like a hinge. In stanza three Plath says, “Little pilgrim the Indian’s axed your scalp.” Here she uses a metaphor, describing her thumb as a pilgrim that has been wounded by an Indian. The use of this metaphor emphasizes the wound on her thumb and creates a better and more interesting picture or outlook on her situation.
Plath has also been able to develop and change the mood of the poem. “What a thrill, my thumb instead of an onion.” At the start the realisation of her cutting her thumb is an annoying and predictable circumstance to her. However her mood changes almost instantly as she becomes intrigued about her injury. She is not frantically trying to stop the pain or blood but is actually enjoying and having fun out of her injury. This can be shown in stanza three where she says “… clutching my bottle of pink fizz. A celebration this is.” But as she begins to realise that she isn’t feeling very well her mood changes again. She starts to think about how stupid she has been to let herself indulge in pain and her feeling now of which has become self hate is clearly shown in the eighth stanza where she says,”…dirty girl, thumb stump.”
Overall I found this poem enjoyable to read and I think that it was well written. In my opinion the main two things that made this poem interesting were the constant use of similes and metaphors. This kept clear images of what was happening in the poem in my mind.
By David.
