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Meaning
The line suggests a corrosive force that weakens resolve little by little. The repeated ending emphasizes how slowly but steadily it destroys, until action and will are gone.
When It Was Said
Not documented yet.
Who It Was Said To
Not documented yet.
Historical Context
Not documented yet.
Source
Ariel (2022)
Original Language & Translation
Originally said in English.
Did They Really Say It?
The phrase appears in the book "Ariel (2022)" by Sylvia Plath (Google Books snippet); no earlier source was checked.
Did You Know?
Not documented yet.
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 Her Collected Poems appeared in 1981 with previously unpublished work, and that collection won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1982, awarded to her posthumously.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) →Other sayings from Sylvia Plath
- “A baby! I hated babies. I, who for two and a half years had been the center of a tender universe, felt the ax…”Sylvia Plath
- “I have the choice of being constantly active and happy or introspectively passive and sad.”Sylvia Plath
- “You must create the right kind of dream, the sober, adult kind of magic: illusion born from disillusion.”Sylvia Plath
- “Hurl yourself at goals above your head and bear the lacerations that come when you slip and make a fool of yo…”Sylvia Plath
More Poetry quotes
- “No poem ever bought a hamburger, or not too many.”Thomas Lux
- “All that really matters isto feel alive, if only for a single moment –to feel in Intense Sensationthat our ex…”Pietros Maneos
- “In poetry we pare down our thoughts into their most graceful shapes, like minimalist sculptures.”Patricia Robin Woodruff
READ THE SOURCE
Books by Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar
2006
Ariel
1965
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams
1975
The bed book
1976
Collected Poems
1981