Full fathom five poem sylvia plath biography

This poem tells of an old god-like man who has risen from the sea.!

As in earlier poems by Plath, death is envisioned as a watery union.

Full Fathom Five Summary & Study Guide

The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Plath, Sylvia. “Full Fathom Five” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/154287/full-fathom-five.

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem from which the quotations are taken.

Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts.

As a young girl, Plath showed early literary talent – her poems were published in regional magazines and newspapers and her first national publication was in the Christian Science Monitor. She went on to attend Smith College, during which time she experienced her first depressive episodes.

We're sharing her poem 'Full Fathom Five', which appeared in TLM first in June 1960, and was later published by Faber & Faber in The Colossus and Other Poems.

"Full Fathom Five" is a poignant exploration of the complexities of father-daughter relationships, rendered through the grand metaphor of the sea.

This poem tells of an old god-like man who has risen from the sea.

Sylvia Plath's poetry narrates both her distinct, individual story and yet universal tale of a woman who searches for a way out of her depressed state of mind.

'Full Fathom Five' is an expression of her love for sea and her love and fear of her father, Otto Plath.

In 1956, Plath met fellow American poet, Ted Hughes, whom she married. Unfortunately, the marriage proved to be unhealthy and abusive – Hughes was involved in numerous affairs, and Plath confessed to her psychiatrist that he subjected her to psychological and physical abuse.

She died in 1963 by suic