...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.
Sylvia PlathRead
There is something demoralizing about watching two people get more and more crazy about each other, especially when you are the only extra person in the room. It's like watching Paris from an express caboose heading in the opposite direction--every second the city gets smaller and smaller, only you feel it's really you getting smaller and smaller and lonelier and lonelier, rushing away from all those lights and excitement at about a million miles an hour.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the pain of unrequited love and the loneliness that can accompany witnessing the intimacy of others.
Sylvia Plath's quote explores the emotional turmoil that arises from observing the passionate connection between two people while feeling isolated and excluded. The metaphor of watching Paris from a moving train vividly captures the sense of yearning and the feeling of being left behind, as one experiences a deepening sense of loneliness in the face of happiness shared by others. It emphasizes the stark contrast between the excitement of love and the painful distance of solitude.
Themes
LonelinessLoveYearningHeartbreakIsolation
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion about unrequited love, one might say, 'As Sylvia Plath observed, it can be demoralizing to witness others in love while feeling so alone.'
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.
Sylvia PlathRead
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.
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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?
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I keep wanting to crawl back into the womb.
Sylvia PlathRead
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.
Sylvia PlathRead
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