“I didn't know why I was going to cry, but I knew that if anybody spoke to me or looked at me too closely the tears would fly out of my eyes and the sobs would fly out of the throat and I'd cry for a week.”

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Meaning

This reads as a portrait of emotion so close to the surface that it feels barely containable. It points to a state where distress is already there, even before words or attention arrive, and a small outside prompt can bring it rushing out. In a moment of strain or grief, it lands as the feeling that composure is only a thin cover.

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Originally said in English.

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About Sylvia Plath

American poet and author

Sylvia Plath was an American poet and author. She helped shape confessional poetry and is best known for work that brought private experience into sharp literary focus. Her books include The Colossus and Other Poems, Ariel, and The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her death. Her Collected Poems appeared in 1981 with previously unpublished work, and that collection won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1982, awarded to her posthumously.

More from Sylvia Plath (248 quotes) →

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Books by Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar

2006

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Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams

1975

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The bed book

1976

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Collected Poems

1981

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