The Moon and the Yew Tree Poem By Sylvia Plath- Summery

 The Moon and the Yew Tree

By Sylvia Plath

                      

This is the light of the mind, cold and planetary
The trees of the mind are black. The light is blue.
The grasses unload their griefs on my feet as if I were God
Prickling my ankles and murmuring of their humility
Fumy, spiritous mists inhabit this place.
Separated from my house by a row of headstones.
I simply cannot see where there is to get to.

The moon is no door. It is a face in its own right,
White as a knuckle and terribly upset.
It drags the sea after it like a dark crime; it is quiet
With the O-gape of complete despair. I live here.
Twice on Sunday, the bells startle the sky -
Eight great tongues affirming the Resurrection
At the end, they soberly bong out their names.

The yew tree points up, it has a Gothic shape.
The eyes lift after it and find the moon.
The moon is my mother. She is not sweet like Mary.
Her blue garments unloose small bats and owls.
How I would like to believe in tenderness -
The face of the effigy, gentled by candles,
Bending, on me in particular, its mild eyes.

I have fallen a long way. Clouds are flowering
Blue and mystical over the face of the stars
Inside the church, the saints will all be blue,
Floating on their delicate feet over the cold pews,
Their hands and faces stiff with holiness.
The moon sees nothing of this. She is bald and wild.
And the message of the yew tree is blackness - blackness and silence

 

                                        

 

The Moon and the Yew Tree Summary

 

"The Moon and the Yew Tree," is a poem that focuses significantly on images and symbols, crafted beautifully by Plath. The speaker describes the "light of the mind" as being "cold and planetary," while the "trees of the mind are black." Even the grass "unloads their griefs" on her feet. This immediately creates a cold and unsettling feeling, that will be developed in the rest of the poem.

The speaker creates a feeling of loneliness and disorientation, saying that she is separated from her house by headstones and that she "simply cannot see where there is to get to." This creates a sense of being lost, as the speaker is separated from her home and cannot see where she can go. Compounding this, we are told that "the moon is no door," again emphasizing the feeling of entrapment or disorientation. It is almost as if the speaker is trapped somewhere and cannot escape.

Developing on the symbolic significance of the moon, the speaker tells us that the moon is "a face in its own right," dragging the sea after it "like a dark crime." Later, the speaker states that "the moon is my mother," indicating what the moon represents in this poem.

Now, Plath moves onto the yew tree, which points up towards the sky in a "gothic shape," finding the moon. Describing the moon further, the speaker tells us that she is "not sweet like Mary." Here, the usual association between the moon, gentleness, and maternal feelings is subverted.

Instead, the moon unleashes "small bats and owls." The fact that Plath uses gothic imagery to describe something that is usually associated with motherhood and femininity is significant and is often linked to her own relationship with her mother when reading this poem biographically.

Finally, the poem ends with the speaker summarizing that the moon is "bald and wild" while the yew tree's message is "blackness and silence." Ultimately, if we see the moon and the yew tree as representing parental figures, the speaker is suggesting she finds no comfort in these figures, and that she feels very alone.