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Red Comet





 Sylvia Plath would have celebrated a birthday this week. She is the subject of a buzzy new biography, "Red Comet."


The artist Summer Pierre, whose work is included here, took an interest in Plath a few years ago. She read Plath's letters and published a review in the "New Yorker": Pierre made the point that, although Plath is now known (partly) for the grim final weeks of her life, Plath was (also) a genius and highly effective. 


It's tough to become a world-renowned poet if you're a slouch. Plath was publishing in national magazines when she was a teenager; she encouraged her husband, who had far less professional knowledge; she wrote "The Bell Jar" in six weeks, while also raising her daughter. (People don't point out when a male writer is "also a dad!" ....Fair enough, but something tells me the bulk of the child-rearing work in the Plath/Hughes household was *not* going to Ted Hughes.)


Summer Pierre uses wonderful details in her remarks on Plath. She points out Plath's extravagant cooking--and Plath's obvious pride in that cooking--and she points out the Fulbright, the fact that Plath would sometimes have to spend a day typing *Ted's* poems, the fact that her final letter was addressed to her doctor....


A strong ending is "surprising but inevitable," and Pierre has a sharp twist. Pierre notes that Plath accomplished basically everything she put her mind to. If Plath hadn't been so capable and so determined, then, perhaps, the *suicide* plan would have fallen into a trash heap. If only.


Finally: Draw what you love. Pierre made a tribute to Plath--young, radiant--and jotted down a few Plath lessons. Think of yourself as a professional. Work at it everyday. Use what you know.


How to express gratitude? From Pierre, and from Plath--what a major treat.


P.S. I'm hooked by these lines:


In the German tongue, in the Polish town

Scraped flat by the roller

Of wars, wars, wars....


How the first line has a disturbing sing-song quality. How the second line gives us our first back-to-back stressed-syllable moment. ("Scraped flat." There's something emphatic in one stressed syllable after another. Form matching content.) Then: the three consecutive stressed syllables: "wars, wars, wars....."

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