"Mad Girl's Love Song" by Sylvia Plath (poetry reading)

I do not, as a rule, attempt to read Sylvia Plath. I admire her poetry but I'm not sure my voice can convey the right emotions. However, I don't like any other readings of this poem I have heard. Thinking I can't do worse, I've made my best attempt.

The poem was probably written in 1953 - not later. In the January she broke her leg skiing while visiting Dick Norton, whom she started dating in 1951. Later in the same year she had Electroconvulsive Therapy for depression and in August made her first suicide attempt, remaining unconscious from an overdose of sleeping pills for three days in the crawl space of her mother's house.
http://www.neuroticpoets.com/plath/

Sylvia first met Ted Hughes in 1956. Had she lived, she would have been 79 this year.

The paintings are by Sylvia.

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Mad
• Girl's
• Love
• Song
• Sylvia
• Plath

[kazzam99]

again, i just love the way read this poem. to me, you get across the feeling and the intention of the poem. stunning reading!!!!

[kazzam99]

Stunning reading x

[n4d1a]

I absolutely love the way you read this. It actually did more justice to the poem. Beautiful.

[thissong4you]

Quite lovely, Tom. Your reading does truly convey the emotions I feel "inside my head" when I read this poem to myself and that I hope I am conveying when I read it aloud to myself.. Beautifully nuanced.

[TheWinterHeat]

this is frickin awesome !!!

[jhvscs]

wow that was awesome

[sonofwalt]

I do like this reading very much. Well done.

[rpVerlaine]

my favorite of the recent ones because it is unlikely and therefore all the more stirring

[agrlfmtx]

I do not think her to be THAT mad....? T:)

[1BattleAngel]

you are in the relms of lionel fanthorpe You have a lovely voice...thank you for puting this on you tube..you made my day =) cheers kind sir..