Sylvia Plath part 5 of 6

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This documentary has been viewed 16,749 times. At least 1,000 of those views are by one DT. This section in particular, where Clarissa Roche, a friend of Plath's recounts...sets the record straight about "Daddy" not being a hateful poem, not being a poem about Plath hating her father...is a good lesson for any reader of poetry. It is best to keep an open mind. To read, digest, and then come back to the work, especially if one has had a visceral reaction to it. Especially if one has some conscious or subconscious perceptual agenda...toward the poet. The less one responds to the urge to frame a poet's work around a single issue, emotion, theme, topic, the more one gains, as readers. It's important to keep in mind. Poetry is such a gift from the One, the universe, from writer to reader (sometimes), that to treat it as mere fodder, ammunition, justification, is to miss the whole point of it. One only cheats the self. As a whole, this documentary is astonishing to take in. The most accurate voices for Plath in it come from Mr. Alvarez, Sandra Gilbert, and Clarissa Roche. It is so interesting to hear the very British i.e., very on Hughes side, Dido Merwin, wife of W.S. Merwin, speak  about Assia not being the main reason Ted left, and about Plath's behavior. Peace.