Cut

By Watermelon Farmer Ali and Kavinda

Cut-Poemfor Susan O'Neill Roe

What a thrill ----My thumb instead of an onion.The top quite goneExcept for a sort of hinge

Of skin,A flap like a hat,Dead white.Then that red plush.

Little pilgrim,The Indian's axed your scalp.Your turkey wattleCarpet rolls

Straight from the heart.I step on it,Clutching my bottleOf pink fizz. A celebration, this is.Out of a gapA million soldiers run,Redcoats, every one.

Whose side are they one?O myHomunculus, I am ill.I have taken a pill to kill

The thinPapery feeling.Saboteur,Kamikaze man ----

The stain on yourGauze Ku Klux KlanBabushkaDarkens and tarnishes and whenThe balledPulp of your heartConfronts its smallMill of silence

How you jump ----Trepanned veteran,Dirty girl,Thumb stump.

Overview This poem is about an accident in which

Plath cuts her thumb Plath describes in detail the what she

felt in that frozen moment in time. She uses lots of imagery to make the

poem as graphic as possible

“for Susan O'Neill Roe” This poem was written for Plath’s new

nanny, as a welcoming gesture. It is likely that it was Susan’s thumb was

cut, which inspired Plath to write this poem.

"What a thrill" Sarcastic tone shows an unexpected

calmness, that freezes and effectively captures the moment of the cut

It does give the reader some sort of idea of the feeling of the cut. As one usually feels a thrill before the pain.

“Dead white.Then that red plush” The description is calm and is like

looking at a photo. Helps the reader to imagine what the scene looked like.

“The Indian's axed your scalp.” Scalping is a very bloody process and

could refer to the bleeding of the thumb that has seemingly been scalped.

This could also refer to wars between Native Indians and early settlers, which caused pain and bloodshed on both sides

"Clutching my bottle Of pink fizz. A celebration, this is." Refers to her thumb as a bottle, which

indicates the amount of blood being let out.

The celebration, is not her celebrating, but rather refers to the blood spurting out her thumb, like fireworks.

"Out of a gap A million soldiers run, Redcoats, every one." Million soldiers with redcoats, refers to

red blood cells rushing out of the gap in her skin.

The soldiers, also refer to the American civil war, which was one of the bloodiest wars in America.

“Homunculus, I am ill” Homunculi, are sometimes used in context

of a ‘created’ human, for example in alchemy.

This would mean that Plath’s blood and cut would symbolize that she is truly human to be able to bleed, and could show that Plath wanted to express herself fully, but seemed trapped, by her problems. Hence, her fascination with the cut

“I have taken a pill to kill

The thinPapery feeling.”

Plath, deliberately ends the stanza at “kill”. This could show possible suicidal thoughts.

However, taking enjambment into consideration, we see that Plath has taken a painkiller.

“Saboteur,Kamikaze man” She has sabotaged her own safety, and

has damaged herself. She feels guilty of mutilating herself, even though it was an accident

“The stain on your Gauze Ku Klux Klan Babushka” Plath refers to a KKK robe, which creates

an image of a robe stained, with the fresh blood of an innocent. Which is an indication of what the gauze dressing would look like.

Babushka is a headscarf that is wrapped around the head and under the chin, which would create an image of how the wound had been dressed.

“Trepanned veteran,Dirty girl,Thumb stump” The short sentences at the end signal

the end of an eternity, as life is starting to go back to its fast pace.

Dirty girl, would refer to her hands being stained with blood. However, it could be a feeling of guilt for being so fascinated by the cut.

Some Literary techniques Enjambment is used to distort the

feeling of time. There are long sentences that flow into the next stanza, which creates a slow pace.

Colourful metaphors are used to transfer ideas to the reader.

What could the poem mean? The poem could just be describing the

emotions and thought process during a cut.

OR, the poem could be a metaphor for the pain caused by the world unto itself. The constant reference to wars and even to the Ku Klux Klan, shows that this poem could be about the world cutting itself.