The Great Carbuncle
The Great Carbuncle - meaning Summary
Ascent Toward Unattainable Light
Plath's poem follows a group crossing a moor toward a luminous, elusive source described as a "great jewel." The encounter temporarily transfigures bodies and perception: gravity loosens, ordinary objects float, and the pilgrims feel suspended in a near-angelic realm. The vision is fleeting; as they approach, light withdraws and physical weight returns. The poem centers on longing for a transcendent revelation and the inevitable reassertion of earthly limits.
Read Complete AnalysesWe came over the moor-top Through air streaming and green-lit, Stone farms foundering in it, Valleys of grass altering In a light neither dawn Nor nightfall, out hands, faces Lucent as percelain, the earth's Claim and weight gone out of them. Some such transfiguring moved The eight pilgrims towards its source-- Toward the great jewel: shown often, Never given; hidden, yet Simultaneously seen On moor-top, at sea-bottom, Knowable only by light Other than noon, that moon, stars --- The once-known way becoming Wholly other, and ourselves Estranged, changed, suspended where Angels are rumored, clearly Floating , among the floating Tables and chairs. Gravity's Lost in the lift and drift of An easier element Than earth, and there is nothing So fine we cannot do it. But nearing means distancing: At the common homecoming Light withdraws. Chairs, tables drop Down: the body weighs like stone.
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