...we shall board our imagined ship and wildly sail among sacred islands of the mad till death shatters the fabulous stars and makes us real.
God, if ever I have come close to wanting to commit suicide, it is now, with the groggy sleepless blood dragging through my veins, and the air thick and gray with rain ... I fell into bed again this morning, begging for sleep, withdrawing into the dark, warm, fetid escape from action, from responsibility. No good.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a deep struggle with despair and the desire to escape reality.
In this quote, Sylvia Plath candidly conveys her overwhelming feelings of hopelessness and the urge to retreat from the harshness of life. The imagery of a sleepless state coupled with a longing for the comfort of sleep illustrates the weight of her emotional turmoil, reflecting the inner battle many face when grappling with intense despair and the responsibilities that come with life. Plath's words serve as a poignant reminder of the darkness that can accompany existence, while also highlighting the human desire for solace from these burdens.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a mental health awareness speech to illustrate the depth of depression.
More from Sylvia Plath
All quotes →The hardest thing, I think, is to live richly in the present, without letting it be tainted & spoiled out of fear for the future or regret for a badly-managed past.
It is as if my life were magically run by two electric currents: joyous positive and despairing negative--which ever is running at the moment dominates my life, floods it.
You walked in, laughing, tears welling confused, mingling in your throat. How can you be so many women to so many people, oh you strange girl?
I keep wanting to crawl back into the womb.
It's the living, the eating, the sleeping that everyone needs. Ideas don't matter so much after all. My three best friends are Catholic. I can't see their beliefs, but I can see the things they love to do on earth. When you come right down to it, I do believe in the freedom of the individual.
Similar quotes
I tell people, if you're thinking about suicide, all that stuff I've attempted and thought about it. If you think about it, life gets better. The key to life when it gets tough is to keep moving. Just keep moving.
Battling racism and battling heterosexism and battling apartheid share the same urgency inside me as battling cancer.
If we want there to be peace in the world, we have to be brave enough to soften what is rigid in our hearts, to find the soft spot and stay with it. We have to have that kind of courage and take that kind of responsibility. That’s the true practice of peace.
Heroism is a matter of integrity--beco ming more and more at each step ourselves.
I think I would have drank myself to death, literally, if I didn't just stop, once and for all when I did. I am not ever going to preach to anyone about drugs or drinking. But, for me, when they were around, I had no self control.
The work of anti-racism can only take place inside each individual soul, where we all try to grow into better people. There is no national tonic or instant cure.