Daniel Fuad

“Daylong a Duet of Shade and Light”: Spring and Winter in Sylvia Plath’s Poetry

“Daylong a duet of shade and light” (“Persephone” 3). This line from Sylvia Plath’s poem, “Two Sisters of Persephone”, indicates the comparisons she makes between the two seasons: spring and winter. These seasons are predominant in much of her poetry, and their imagery alternates connotations in several of them. In Sylvia Plath’s poems, “Two Sisters of Persephone” and “Spinster”, the seasons of spring and winter convey rejuvenation and hostility.

The season of spring carries a tone of renewal and bitterness in “Two Sisters of Persephone” and that of malice in “Spinster.” In “Two Sisters of Persephone”, spring indicates pregnancy, as seen when the second sister laid “near a bed of poppies” (16) and she “[grew] quick with seed” (22). Spring symbolizes rebirth and Sylvia Plath utilizes it to show a woman’s married role in society. She voices her objection to this responsibility when the same sister “sees how [her] red silk flare / of petaled blood / Burns open to the sun’s blade” (17-19). Although spring brings about a sense of a new beginning, the images of this season evoke emotions of pain and suffering. Unlike “Two Sisters of Persephone” in which the vibrant descriptions portray anguish, the poem, “Spinster’s” spring references are entirely spiteful. The young girl is on her “ceremonious april walk” (2) when she realizes that the magnitude of her appalling situation. She “[Finds] herself, of a sudden, intolerably struck / By the birds’ irregular babel / And the leaves litter” (4-6). Spring refers to her bitterness towards the gentleman whom she once loved, and augments the direness of her situation. Later, the young girl walked “Through a rank wilderness of fern and flower, / She judged petals in disarray, / The whole season, sloven” (10-12). Because of her lost romance, the girl’s love life has gone spiraling into chaos, as she attempts to come to cope with her predicament. Spring brings about rejuvenation, rebirth, and pain in “Two Sisters of Persephone” and hatred in “Spinster.”

The second season mentioned in these two poems is winter. In “Two Sisters of Persephone”, winter conveys a cold, barren tone, while in “Spinster,” it represents structure and order. The first sister in “Two Sisters of Persephone” is described as a “barren enterprise” (10) who works alone “in her dark wainscoted room” (5). Plath depicts her as the unmarried sister who will remain a “wry virgin to the last” (22). Her message is that women who never find a husband will be forlorn and that love is chaotic and dangerous. On the other hand, “Spinster’s” use of winter conveys the love the young girl yearns for. She describes it as “scrupulously in order / of white and black / ice rock; each sentiment with border, / And hearts frosty discipline / Exact as a snowflake” (13-18). Just as the facets of winter are simple, delicate, and perfectly in place, the girl wishes her love life would similarly fall into place. Winter is representative of negativity in “Two Sisters of Persephone” and of the perfect model of love in “Spinster.”

In “Two Sisters of Persephone” and “Spinster,” the imagery of spring and winter evoke emotions of rebirth and bitterness. Altering the meanings of the seasons demonstrates Sylvia Plath’s apt ability to instill different feelings in readers’ minds when substituting the two. Not only do they get readers questioning why she does this so, but they are also amazed at the connotations that both the seasons can portray in different love scenarios, whether they be good or bad.