Sylvia Plath
( 1932 - 1963 )
Born in Boston, Massachusetts. Mother, Aurelia Schober. Father, Otto Plath- Taught German and biology. with a focus on apiology, the study of bees. 1940, when Plath was eight years old, her father died fom diabetes complications. He was a strict father, and both his authoritarian attitudes and his death effected her relationships and her poems—most notably in her poem 'Daddy'. Her first national publication was in the Christian Science Monitor in 1950, She went through deep depression in 1953 and a suicide attempt, she managed to graduate in 1955. She married Ted Hughes in 1956. Her first collection of poems, Colossus, was published in 1960 in England, and two years later in the United States. She returned to England, where she gave birth to her children In 1963, Plath published a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. Plath wrote a note to her downstairs neighbor instructing him to call the doctor, then she committed suicide using her gas oven. Plath’s poetry is often associated with the Confessional movement, Often, her work is singled out for the intense coupling of its violent or disturbed imagery and its playful use of alliteration and rhyme.The Collected Poems, which was the recipient of the 1982 Pulitzer Prize. She was the first poet to posthumously win a Pulitzer Prize. |
Carol Ann Duffy
Tiresias
Tiresias in Greek methodology, a blind Theban Seer/Prophet who appears in many of these Greek myths.
There are many tales about his blindness. It is said in one tale that he once saw Athena bathing and was then struck blind, later Athena felt sorry for him, but was unable to give his sight back so instead gave him the gift of prophecy and he was able to understand the birds language. In another tale Tiresias is said to have come across two snakes mating. He killed the female snake and then transformed into a woman. 7 years later he comes across the same thing again, however, this time he kills the male snake and transforms into a man. Zeus and Hera are having an argument about which of the two sexes enjoys love more, and as Tiresias had been both sexes he says that a man gives more pleasure than he gets. Hera strikes him blind and Zeus instead gives him the power to look into the future and live an amazing life. In the Odyssey he retained his prophetic gifts even in the underworld, where the hero was Odyssey sent to consult him. At Thebes he played an active part in the tragic events concerning Laius, the king of Thebes, and his son Oedipus. |
Charles Darwin
William Shakespeare
( 1564 - 1616 )
William Shakespeare is one of the world's greatest writers. He wrote plays for the theatre and wrote poetry too. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, in Tudor England. Later he went to London, to be an actor. But he became famous for writing plays. Most people now say he was the best of all time. Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range of human emotion and conflict. He was the 3rd child of John Shakespeare, a leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a local landed heiress. He had 2 older sisters, and 3 younger brothers. Before his birth, his father became a successful merchant and held official positions as alderman and bailiff, an office resembling a mayor. Shakespeare married Ann Hathaway in 1582. He was 18 and she was 26 and as it turns out pregnant their first child was born in 1583 and in 1585 he had twins. Shakespeare's early plays were written in the style of the time period, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that didn't always align naturally with the story's plot or characters. However, Shakespeare adapted the traditional style to his own purposes and creating a freer flow of words. With only small degrees of variation, At the same time, there are passages in all the plays that deviate from this and use forms of poetry or simple prose. |
Icarus
Greek methodology, Icarus is the son of Daedalus. Both were imprisoned inside a massive labrynth in Crete.
The father made them each a pair of wings, and with these they were able to escape. Daedalus warned his son not to fly too high or the sun would melt the wax on the wings and he would fall so he was instructed to follow him closely. But Icarus became to excited at the notion of being able to fly and flew too high, the wax melted, and he fell to his death. |
Sigmund Freud
( 1856 - 1939 )
Born in Freiberg, Moravia. His family moved to Leipzig and then settled in Vienna, where Freud was educated. Freud's family were Jewish but he was himself did not practice. In 1873, Freud began to study medicine at the University of Vienna. After graduating, he worked at the Vienna General Hospital, treating hysteria by the recall of painful experiences under hypnosis. Freud set up in private practice, specialising in nervous and brain disorders. The same year he married Martha Bernays, with whom he had six children. In 1923, he published 'The Ego and the Id', which suggested a new structural model of the mind, divided into the 'id, the 'ego' and the 'superego'. Later that year, the Nazis publicly burnt a number of Freud's books. In 1938, shortly after the Nazis annexed Austria, Freud left Vienna for London with his wife and daughter Anna. Freud had been diagnosed with cancer of the jaw in 1923, and underwent more than 30 operations. He died of cancer. |
Salome
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Salome was the daughter of Philip and Herodias. She danced before the ruler, Herod Antipas (Philip's half-brother and her uncle), who promised she could have anything she wanted.
John the Baptist had condemned Herodias because of her affair with Herod, who had put him in prison. Prompted by her mother, Salome asked for the head of John and so he was executed. In the poem, Salome is presented as some kind of serial head remover, she says she has 'done it before' and seems to be aware that she could do it again. However, when she wakes she has a head beside her, but doesn't seem to care who the person's head was, but notices the physical features of the head in great detail. She calls for the maid, who brings her breakfast. Salome decides that she will 'clean up her act' and stop doing all this. She decides to start with getting rid of her lover, but pulls back the cover to find his head in the bed. |
PoemSalome
I’d done it before (and doubtless I’ll do it again, sooner or later) woke up with a head on the pillow beside me – whose? – what did it matter? Good-looking, of course, dark hair, rather matted; the reddish beard several shades lighter; with very deep lines around the eyes, from pain, I’d guess, maybe laughter; and a beautiful crimson mouth that obviously knew how to flatter… which I kissed… Colder than pewter. Strange. What was his name? Peter? Simon? Andrew? John? I knew I’d feel better for tea, dry toast, no butter, so rang for the maid. And, indeed, her innocent clatter of cups and plates, her clearing of clutter, her regional patter, were just what I needed – hungover and wrecked as I was from a night on the batter. Never again! I needed to clean up my act, get fitter, cut out the booze and the fags and the sex. Yes. And as for the latter, it was time to turf out the blighter, the beater or biter, who’d come like a lamb to the slaughter to Salome’s bed. In the mirror, I saw my eyes glitter. I flung back the sticky red sheets, and there, like I said – and ain’t life a bitch – was his head on a platter. |