Female Author
Female Author - meaning Summary
Detached Feminine Refinement
Plath's "Female Author" sketches a feminine persona who cultivates elegant, saccharine surroundings while aloofly "playing at chess with the bones of the world." Luxuries and floral decadence mask moral rot; images of blood, festering gardenias, and a crypt intrude on polished domesticity. The poem suggests a writer's aestheticizing withdrawal—preferring refined metaphor and private indulgence to engaging with the suffering of children and public crises.
Read Complete AnalysesAll day she plays at chess with the bones of the world: Favored (while suddenly the rains begin Beyond the window) she lies on cushions curled And nibbles an occasional bonbon of sin. Prim, pink-breasted, feminine, she nurses Chocolate fancies in rose-papered rooms Where polished higboys whisper creaking curses And hothouse roses shed immortal blooms. The garnets on her fingers twinkle quick And blood reflects across the manuscript; She muses on the odor, sweet and sick, Of festering gardenias in a crypt, And lost in subtle metaphor, retreats From gray child faces crying in the streets.
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