Modeling Poem

Sunsets and Stormy Skies


Gravity dangles me by my feet
as I beg him not to drop me,
into the endless black sea.
“We all drown in the sea”
he tells me, but
I don’t want to listen.
The cardinal of my heart has turned
against me. I have looked everywhere.
The hair under my nails tell me
she’s gone, but
I don’t want to listen.
Light pours past the shivering trees
and in through the black oval window.
A stormy sea of light
washes over my eyes,
as I drown in sleep.

The poem Sunsets and Stormy Skies is a model of the confessional poetic style with characteristics similar to Sylvia Plath. It adheres to the confessional style of writing by expressing the “I” and “me” in the poem as the speaker. The speaker is the writer, although it is not explicitly stated. Specific personal details about the writer are not present, but the overall confessional feelings and emotions are seen. Within the poem color and symbols function in a similar way to that of Sylvia Plath. Plath often used the sea to express a returning or regression back to the womb which symbolized a rebirth. She also used the sea to convey feelings of death and drowning. In the modeling poem the sea functions in similar ways. Here the sea also functions with feelings of death and drowning. The death also converts into a rebirth or reincarnation expressed by the phrase, “we all drown in the sea.” The sea that everyone is destined to be overtaken by is the natural occurrence of life which will lead to another form of life only actualized within your own imagination, i.e. your dreams. The use of color in this poem is also similar to Plath. The color black symbolizes the sea in its vicious and stormy forms. Here the black sea is supposed to invoke fear, like Plath of the grave. Another color often used by Plath is the color red. Here it is used in the form of a cardinal. The deep red color of the cardinal symbolizes the departure of important feelings and aspects of your life that have made you whole. This departure has created a wound in your mind, creating confusion and madness. The red wounds have caused such great distress the only escape is the inevitable drowning. To scared to become your own executioner you have to settle for your rebirth in the form of dreams, by drowning in sleep and living for a short period of time in your imagination.