Poem Analysis - Burning The Letters

Introduction: A Cleansing Fire of the Past

Sylvia Plath's "Burning The Letters" is a powerful and unsettling exploration of memory, identity, and the destructive act of attempting to erase the past. The poem pulses with a conflicted energy, shifting from weariness and resentment to a kind of frenzied liberation and, finally, a dark acceptance. The speaker confronts the ghosts contained within old letters, seeking to obliterate them through fire. However, this attempt at purification reveals the enduring and complex nature of memory, demonstrating that some things, once experienced, cannot truly be destroyed. The poem resonates with a sense of both release and profound unease.

Theme: Memory as a Prison and a Battlefield

One of the central themes is the oppressive nature of memory. The letters are initially described as "white fists" and emitting a "death rattle," portraying them as aggressive and suffocating. The speaker feels trapped by the past, symbolized by the "cardboard cartons the color of cement." These containers represent a stifling prison of emotions and experiences. The phrase "strung just under the surface, / Dumb fish / With one tin eye, / Watching for glints" vividly captures the speaker's feeling of being perpetually vulnerable and haunted by the past. The speaker's attempt to escape this prison through burning the letters is a desperate act of self-preservation, highlighting the consuming power of memory.

Theme: Identity Forged in Destruction

The act of burning the letters becomes a metaphor for the speaker's struggle to redefine her identity. By destroying these remnants of the past, she seeks to dismantle the narrative they represent and create a new one. The image of the fire itself is ambivalent. It is "merciless" but also something the speaker is drawn to, suggesting both the destructive and potentially cathartic nature of this process. The “carbon birds” rising from the ashes, though “blinded,” offer a form of "consolation," implying a fragile hope for renewal. The repeated "I" throughout the poem, particularly in the later stanzas, emphasizes the speaker's agency in this act of destruction and reconstruction.

Theme: The Uncontainable Nature of Truth

Despite the speaker's attempts to erase the past, the poem suggests that truth, like memory, is ultimately uncontainable. Even as the letters are reduced to ash, their essence persists. The poem concludes with the violent imagery of "dogs tearing a fox," which serves as a disturbing analogy for the speaker's own experience. The fox's "cry / That splits from it's ripped bag and does not stop" represents the inescapable truth that endures even after destruction. This truth, "dyeing the air," infiltrates everything – "the clouds, the leaves, the water" – suggesting that the past, despite attempts at obliteration, continues to shape the present. It is a stark acknowledgement that attempts to rewrite history may fail.

Symbols: Fire, Letters, and the Bodiless Owl

The fire is a central symbol, representing both destruction and potential purification. It is a means of obliterating the physical evidence of the past, but it also serves as a catalyst for confronting difficult emotions. The letters themselves are not merely pieces of paper; they embody memories, relationships, and past identities that the speaker seeks to escape. They are described as having "eyes and times of the postmarks", implying that they are like living, watching entities that still have an affect on the speaker. In contrast, the "bodiless owl" suggests a wisdom or understanding that the speaker feels she lacks, a sense of detached observation that is absent in her own intense emotional experience. Is the speaker rejecting the wisdom the owl symbolizes in favor of her more visceral, destructive approach to dealing with the past?

Conclusion: The Echoes of Immortality

“Burning The Letters” is a complex and unsettling exploration of the enduring power of memory and the struggle to forge a new identity in the face of the past. While the speaker attempts to erase the past through destruction, the poem ultimately suggests that some things, once experienced, cannot truly be obliterated. The final image of the fox's cry "dyeing the air" underscores the uncontainable nature of truth and the enduring echoes of the past. The poem leaves the reader with a profound sense of unease, questioning the efficacy of such violent attempts to control memory and the ultimate nature of immortality and its relationship to truth.