me reading sylvia plath's "pursuit"...

Pursuit
By Sylvia Plath

There is a panther stalks me down:
One day I'll have my death of him;
His greed has set the woods aflame,
He prowls more lordly than the sun.
Most soft, most suavely glides that step,
Advancing always at my back;
From gaunt hemlock, rooks croak havoc:
The hunt is on, and sprung the trap.
Flayed by thorns I trek the rocks,
Haggard through the hot white noon.
Along red network of his veins
What fires run, what craving wakes?

Insatiate, he ransacks the land
Condemned by our ancestral fault,
Crying: blood, let blood be spilt;
Meat must glut his mouth's raw wound.
Keen the rending teeth and sweet
The singeing fury of his fur;
His kisses parch, each paw's a briar,
Doom consummates that appetite.
In the wake of this fierce cat,
Kindled like torches for his joy,
Charred and ravened women lie,
Become his starving body's bait.

Now hills hatch menace, spawning shade;
Midnight cloaks the sultry grove;
The black marauder, hauled by love
On fluent haunches, keeps my speed.
Behind snarled thickets of my eyes
Lurks the lithe one; in dreams' ambush
Bright those claws that mar the flesh
And hungry, hungry, those taut thighs.
His ardor snares me, lights the trees,
And I run flaring in my skin;
What lull, what cool can lap me in
When burns and brands that yellow gaze?

I hurl my heart to halt his pace,
To quench his thirst I squander blood;
He eats, and still his need seeks food,
Compels a total sacrifice.
His voice waylays me, spells a trance,
The gutted forest falls to ash;
Appalled by secret want, I rush
From such assault of radiance.
Entering the tower of my fears,
I shut my doors on that dark guilt,
I bolt the door, each door I bolt.
Blood quickens, gonging in my ears:

The panther's tread is on the stairs,
Coming up and up the stairs.

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• mamaplath

[morrisesque]

@eineScheibeBrot - while i find it surprising that you see this reading as merely "smiling" (do you understand what you see?) - that's rather beside the point.

One of the joys of any art form, including poetry, is that once it's in the public space it belongs to the beholder as well. In any which way they choose to interpret it.

It's a bit arrogant to believe that your interpretation is in any way more "appropriate" than anybody else's, don't you think?

[mythicalsunrise]

miss brot... what demonic cursed words you conjure... what could possibly posses one to question another's succor with poetry.. maybe she sought a little happiness in her requiem for regret.. maybe she sought laughter.. or maybe she sought to levant her peace with words that give her.. her past.. and what she lives.. a little comfort.. sadly it is your superficiality that renders you blind to see the contours of life untold beneath her smile.. and deaf to hear what her eyes implore...

[mythicalsunrise]

the disturbing thing is that we remain exposed to the electronic stage that wharfs your frustrated venom.. which we entreat you to confine to the vacuum of your soul.. her erotic prowess is but a mote to render the journey towards the heart of the lioness.. so perilous.. so precarious.. and so worth it..

[joefranks69]

Seems like only one person got an impression of superficiality here. No argument on this: "yet ... you have an appropriate intonation."

[joefranks69]

Smiling? Yes, she was, but in an erotic, smile-thinly-covering-wanton-l­ust way, which matches the poem's subtle coyness well. Was Plath really afraid of the big bad panther, really? Fearing those hungry, hungry, taut thighs? Yeah... Plath must have been dripping with fear... or just dripping.  Direct eye contact would have ruined the coyness of the piece, especially with this reader's piercing eyes, and ruin the suspension of disbelief. Why would the lioness fear the panther?

[blank267]

when my english teacher read this poem out it was flat and we didnt understand the intensity and erotic nature of plaths relationship with hughes. this rendition is inviting and sexy. because the poem otherwise is quite dark.

[eineScheibeBrot]

sorry for telling you, but do you understand what you read? or, let's say better, do you feel it? i really can't see how you can read such a poem smiling.

yes, you are beautiful and you have good voice and so on, yet you give the impression of superficiality and you have an appropriate intonation.

another disturbing thing is the reading. striking eyes, but why not eye contact and a deep recital?

your sing-song is flattening.

[gvlpak2009]

Beautiful and powerful poem, beautifully read by a strikingly beautiful lady.

[wwelc01]

I enjoyed your reading. You have amazing eyes.