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Glite Dictionary
Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath

7 4.9
An American poet and writer known for her emotional poetry and the novel The Bell Jar
  • proper noun
  • /ˈsɪlviə plæθ/
: Sylvia Plath
  • No surprise, then, that this is once again the season of Sylvia Plath.

Examples

  • The haunting imagery in Sylvia Plath's work continues to influence writers today.

  • Did Sylvia Plath write 'The Bell Jar'?

  • Many students study Sylvia Plath in their modern poetry courses.

  • She wrote her thesis on the life and poetry of Sylvia Plath.

  • Many consider Sylvia Plath a pioneer of confessional poetry.

  • The impact of Sylvia Plath's writing can be felt in modern poetry and literature.

  • Many students study Sylvia Plath in their English classes to understand confessional poetry.

Synonyms

Plath
vsSylvia Plath
13 8.1

An American writer and poet who wrote honest poems and the novel The Bell Jar

uses the full personal name rather than only the surname

Surface Forms

Sylvia Plath main

Morphology

Sylvia + Plath

This is a proper name whose meaning (the identity and biographical details of the poet/writer) is not compositionally derived from the constituents 'Sylvia' and 'Plath'. Knowing the two name-parts does not allow a B1 learner to infer she is an influential American poet or her confessional style, so recognition requires world/cultural knowledge rather than lexical decomposition.

Etymology

Sylvia Plath was an American poet and writer who wrote powerful, personal poems and the novel 'The Bell Jar'. Her work often reads like a private diary, so her name now often stands for 'confessional' or very honest writing about personal feelings.