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  • Essay / Between nature and earth: a comparison between "The long ceiling of the tunnel" and "The burning spa"

    "As a species, we are most animated when our days and nights on Earth are touched by the world natural" - Richard LouvSay no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Plath and Hughes seem to have different relationships with nature; in The Long Tunnel Ceiling Hughes, Hughes seems to gain grounding and a sense of dynamism when in natural surroundings, while Plath presents an image of decay and disintegration when surrounded by the natural world. While Hughes observes the natural world in order to capitalize on its beauty, power, and ferocity, Plath uses nature in an effort to understand herself and obtain answers to the questions that have followed her throughout his life, including the reasons and causes. of his mental illness. In Burnt out spa, Plath sees an image of herself in the water which contrasts with Hughes who sees a trout crashing; water. This symbolizes that Plath does not seem to be driven by nature, but as a confessional poet she uses it to further her exploration of her inner thoughts. Whereas Hughes seems to have more of an affinity with nature and derives a sense of salvation from the industrialization of the world in the face of the natural world. Indeed, in horses, Hughes uses the memory of the “megalithic” environment to anchor it in animated artificial environments. For Hughes, the emphasis and purpose of his poetry was to convey the beauty of nature; it teaches us to understand how the external world can be experienced. Growing up in the countryside, he believed that nature offered a “fine brilliance” that could be found “among the millstones” and that could nourish and give beauty to our lives. This is compounded by the fact that the term “glitter” has connotations of celebration and festivity. Furthermore, Hughes gives the directly tangible image of nature offering "the wild god blooming" by transforming the noun "flower", which is usually a property of nature, into a present participle of the verb. Hughes lends power to nature and shows it as an active verb. force. Hughes' appreciation for nature and how it enlivens us is reinforced when he refers to nature as a "god", which alludes to how he worshiped and viewed nature as the primary power of his life. This is a stark contrast to Plath's Burnt out Spa, which, far from being focused on salvation through nature, is used as a vehicle to convey one's inner world to enhance one's understanding of itself, hence the use of the first person pronoun “I”, which differs. for Hughes who only uses one first person pronoun, "ignoring me", however, this is only used to give the trout a higher status by describing it as superior and unaffected by the presence (of man) by Hughes. Plath's poetry is further self-referential as it reflects her own "toneless" mind, so there are virtually no active verbs. Instead, they tend to refer to destruction; "finished", "melted", "spoiled", therefore, seems to negate the idea that we are more animated when we are touched by nature. The Burnt-Out Spa seems to present nature offering a possibility of salvation for Plath which is conveyed through the image. of water as it “flows” and becomes “toneless water,” which conveys an image of progression and life cycle. However, Plath rejects this development because it is rather “sitting under” water. It's a picture of contradictions with Plath inactiveand stationary in the face of the natural flow of water. The notion of Plath's rejection of being animated by water is conveyed by the regularity of the quatrains, framed by one-line stanzas at the beginning and end of the poem that distinguish between Hughes's free verse and the lack of regular structure in his stanzas. These quatrains depict a clinical and methodical way of looking at nature “like a doctor or an archaeologist”. Thus suggesting that she is not enthusiastic about nature but is driven by structured analysis. This is complemented by the comparison "like a doctor or an archaeologist", because the connotations of the professions are those of people who consider nature in a form of scientific analysis. This again shows the rigidity of Plath and her mind; she is not ready for change. The image of water is reproduced by the presence of the canal in The Long Tunnel Ceiling. Initially, this water reflects the ugliness of the industrial environment through the long vowels of "long gleam-ponderous" which create a languid effect that is compounded by the consonants "l" and "g". However, transform this dull, passive image into exclamatory onomatopoeic phrases like “Suddenly, a crash!” but what nature emerges in the form of a trout. This reference to nature is considered a “Holy of Holies”! A treasure!' The exclamation points and alliterations of “ho” reinforce this excitement at the presence of the trout which can be considered synonymous with animation. This contrasts with Plath's final morbid phrase: "Neither nourishes nor heals." The combination of the two negatives “ni” and “nor” with the plosive consonance of “n” gives a pessimistic view of the effect of nature. Alternatively, it could be argued that the imagery of "upturned stones" is merely a spa metaphor and therefore the pessimistic tone is not a reflection of the impact of nature but a damning indictment against institutions that claim to heal. The context lends even more weight to this notion, as Plath had unsuccessful experiences following repeated admissions to mental health clinics. Thus, the "finished old beast" could refer to itself being sinisterly worn to the "bones" by the "soft suede tongues" which represent the doctors' hands. The hissing here has a sinister effect and justifies Plath's rejection of this image. Plath wrote because she desperately needed to reveal her inner secrets: Hughes said: “You can't overestimate her compulsion to write like that. She had to write these things, even against her most vital interests. She had to tell everyone. This means that her poetry is about an introverted self-discovery, nature is not present in her poetry to show the effect of the outside world on her but rather Plath's inner struggle to accept the world she lived in . Indeed, in “Sheep in the Fog” she uses colors represented in nature to show the darkening of her mind as she travels towards death: the purity of “whiteness” transforms into “rust” which evokes disintegration, before his world is seen as “blackening” into “dark water”. Plath works with binaries; with the opposites of white and black to show the darkness that enveloped her. The blackening plosive “b” combined with the suffix “ing” shows aggression and contrasts sharply with the usual connotations of “Morning”. By focusing on the darkness, Plath rejects the natural chance of a new dawn and therefore new opportunities. This theme of destruction by nature is imitated in the Burnt Out Spa, in fact through the similar imagery of water, which in both poems shows images of drowning and stagnation. This contrasts.