Poetry Quotes by Sylvia Plath

“She. Silent, fawn-eyed. Clever.”

— Sylvia Plath

But writing poems and letters doesn't seem to do much good.

— Sylvia Plath

“Stasis in darkness. Then the substanceless blue”

— Sylvia Plath

Oh what a poet I will flay myself into.

— Sylvia Plath

For me, poetry is an evasion of the real job of writing prose.

— Sylvia Plath

Poetry at its best can do you a lot of harm.

— Sylvia Plath

The blood jet is poetry and there is no stopping it.

— Sylvia Plath

“Empty, I echo to the least footfall”

— Sylvia Plath

The one man in the room who was as big as his poems, huge, with hulk and dynamic chunks of words.

— Sylvia Plath

“I reckon a good poem lasts a whole lot longer than a hundred of those people put together.”

— Sylvia Plath

“Its snaky acids kiss. It petrifies the will. These are the isolate, slow faults That kill, that kill, that kill.”

— Sylvia Plath

I find that in a novel I can get more of life, perhaps not such intense life, but certainly more of life…

— Sylvia Plath

“O love, how did you get here? --from "Nick and the Candlestick", written 29 October 1962”

— Sylvia Plath

“The blood jet is poetry, There is no stopping it. 'Kindness' by Sylvia Plath”

— Sylvia Plath

The door of the novel, like the door of the poem, also shuts. But not so fast, nor with such manic, unanswerable…

— Sylvia Plath

I have felt great advances in my poetry, the main one being a growing victory over word nuances and a superfluity of…

— Sylvia Plath

“They are good evidence to prove that poems which seem often to be constructed of arbitrary surreal symbols are really impassioned reorganizations…

— Sylvia Plath

“They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls. --From the poem "Lady Lazarus", written 23-29…

— Sylvia Plath

Poetry, I feel, is a tyrannical discipline, you've got to go so far, so fast, in such a small space that you've…

— Sylvia Plath

“People were made of nothing so much as dust, and I couldn't see that doctoring all that dust was a bit better…

— Sylvia Plath

Arrogant, I think I have written lines which qualify me to be The Poetess of America (as Ted will be The Poet…

— Sylvia Plath

Poetry, I feel, is a tyrannical discipline. You've got to go so far so fast in such a small space; you've got…

— Sylvia Plath

I think my poems immediately come out of the sensuous and emotional experiences I have, but I must say I cannot sympathise…

— Sylvia Plath

I've got to have something. I want to stop it all, the whole monumental grotesque joke, before it's too late. But writing…

— Sylvia Plath

I find myself absolutely fulfilled when I have written a poem, when I'm writing one. Having written one, then you fall away…

— Sylvia Plath

I do feel that now and I feel that this development of recording poems, of speaking poems at readings, of having records…

— Sylvia Plath

I always was interested in prose. As a teenager, I published short stories. And I always wanted to write the long short…

— Sylvia Plath

“We are born adventurers, and the love of adventures never leaves us till we are very old; old, timid men, in whose…

— Sylvia Plath

I do not want a plain box, I want a sarcophagus With tigery stripes, and a face on it Round as the…

— Sylvia Plath

“I also remembered Buddy Willard saying in a sinister, knowing way that after I had children I would feel differently, I wouldn't…

— Sylvia Plath

“I am in danger of wanting my personal absolute to be a demigod of a man, and as there aren't many around,…

— Sylvia Plath

I remember that as I was writing a poem on 'Snow' when I was eight, I said aloud, 'I wish I could…

— Sylvia Plath

“Paralytic It happens. Will it go on? ---- My mind a rock, No fingers to grip, no tongue, My god the iron…

— Sylvia Plath

“LADY LAZARUS I have done it again. One year in every ten I manage it-- A sort of walking miracle, my skin…

— Sylvia Plath

“Nick and the Candlestick I am a miner. The light burns blue. Waxy stalactites Drip and thicken, tears The earthen womb Exudes…

— Sylvia Plath

“Now, lying on my back in bed, I imagined Buddy saying, ‘Do you know what a poem is, Esther?’ ‘No, what?’ I…

— Sylvia Plath

“Do you know what a poem is, Esther?' No, what?' I would say. A piece of dust.' Then, just as he was…

— Sylvia Plath

I would say everything should be able to come into a poem, but I can't put toothbrushes into a poem, I really…

— Sylvia Plath

As a poet I would say everything should be able to come into a poem but I can't put toothbrushes in a…

— Sylvia Plath

As a poet, one lives a bit on air. I always like someone who can teach me something practical.

— Sylvia Plath