Review of Poetry Book #3: YOUR OWN, SYLVIA: A VERSE PORTRAIT OF SYLVIA PLATH by Stephanie Hemphill

 

Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath

 Review by Lucinda Zamora-Wiley

1.      Bibliography:

Hemphill, Stephanie. Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath. New York:

Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.

2.       2. Brief Plot summary: This work chronicles the life of Sylvia Plath --from childhood to adulthood and tragic suicide-- in verse created by Hemphill, a masterful poet. Hemphill describes the childhood of Plath and illustrates the profound impact that Plath's father's death had on her as a daughter, human being, and writer. As Sylvia matures and begins to forge her life after college, Hemphill illustrates Plath's fierce independence, her life-long struggles with depression, and her significant psychological breakdown that seemed to parallel her marital breakdown with Ted Hughes. Hemphill makes sure to base all her verse in factual biographical annotations, which she inserts as footnotes to accompany almost all of her poems--poems which Hemphill imagines Sylvia Plath's teachers, doctors, friends, and family might have thought, experienced, and written. The end result is a solid sense of biography of a significant poet who deserves her place among all the literary greats. Many will appreciate the addition of photos of Sylvia Plath, which help make her more real to the reader...as well as the inclusion of a "A Reader's Guide" at the end of the book, a trove of discussion questions which teachers or YA book clubs will relish. 

 3. Critical analysis with specific literary considerations pertinent to each genre (this is the “heart” of your review)

Hemphill paints a compelling portrait of Sylvia Plath as a child, student, woman, wife, mother, and most of all, as a poet. Through this chronology of Plath's life, Hemphill is steadfast in her desire to portray an earnest, accurate portrayal of Plath's psychology and heart. Hemphill primarily employs free verse structure to her poems, and the use of multiple points of view help Hemphill--and the reader--to imagine the emotional impact Plath had on others--everyone from her friends, boyfriends, teachers, doctors, mother, and husband-- and the life circumstances that most heavily and dramatically impacted Sylvia. The reader can savor some of Hemphill's most potent lines--for example, these told in Aurelia Plath's voice (Sylvia's mother): "I hold my baby in my arms,/ her legs scarred by razor/ just to test if she had the nerve/ to drag the blade across her skin." And here are some in Hemphill's own imagining of Sylvia's final thoughts: "She is determined, ready as a knife,/ Her letters sealed...She unlatches the oven door. The gas/ Fills her nostrils, sweet as blood, pungent as a sword."  While her poetry is primarily written in free verse form, on occasion, Hemphill employs rhyme and poetic structure to emulate the style of Plath's poems. Hemphill's use of language, imagery, and detail are brilliant and purposeful, quietly paying homage to the life and death of a magnificent literary voice lost too soon. Hemphill's attention to authentic, biographical accuracy is absolutely admirable and commendable, and the author conveys her ethos via her "Source Notes and Bibliography" at the end of her book. When a reader reads Hemphill's final verse entry in Sylvia's life...and death, this book feels worthy of its luminous literary subject. 

4.     4. Awards won (if any) and review excerpt(s):

 ·       * A Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book

 ·        An ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults

 ·        A Booklist Editor’s Choice

 ·        A Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of the Year

 ·        A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

 ·        A Cybil Award Finalist

         ·        Starred review, Kirkus Reviews: "Readers come away with a sense of really knowing Plath . . . a must for any young-adult reader of poetry or Plath."

·        Starred review, Booklist:"An intimate, comprehensive, imaginative view of a life, which also probes the relationships between poetry and creativity, mental fragility, love, marriage, and betrayal."

 ·        Starred review, The Horn Book Magazine: "Hemphill's verse, like Plath's, is completely compelling: every word, every line, worth reading."

·   5. Connections: (related books, enrichment activities, children’s responses, etc.)

   ·        Read/ explore further some of Sylvia Plath’s poems—as noted by and alluded to by S. Hemphill.

·        Read and research further some of Plath’s contemporaries as introduced by Hemphill, including: Ted Hughes, Anne Sexton, Robert Lowell, and other “confessional poets.”

·        As a follow-up activity, students might want to explore the composition of his/ her own “confessional poem.”

·        Science, Medicine, & History connection: research how mental illness was treated back in Plath’s day—including electroshock therapy, as was administered to Plath when she was young.

·        Suicide Prevention & Study in Mental Health and Wellness: As a class, students can create a poetry and visual art anthology rooted in all the reasons that make life worth living—no matter the darkness and obstacles that can be present in life. Students’ contributions might be poetic or artistic.