Black Rook in Rainy Weather

Listen to a reading by the poet.

A poem that explores the nature of poetic inspiration.

From her collection The Colossus, Black Rook in Rainy Weather also comes from around the time that Plath was teaching in Smith College in 1958. It was not the first time that she had written about the importance of being inspired. In her journal in April 1953 she wrote: “If only something would happen! ‘Something’ being the revelation that transfigures existence; works a miraculous change upon the mundane mortal world.”

§ The speaker begins using clear and ordinary language to describe the rook.
§ There is a tone of vague expectation as the poet observes the bird.
§ The speaker describes her own fears and limited expectations. The interrupted pace and rhythm of the third stanza - the pauses forced by the series of commas and the repetition of “I” - suggest a self-conscious, doubtful attitude.
§ The diction used to describe the landscape creates an image of a dull, low-key and lifeless environment - “dull, ruinous”. However the speaker’s tone is vaguely hopeful that such a dull scene may be transfigured and that even the most ordinary object may appear transformed as if it was possessed by some heavenly fire. The choice of words to describe the hoped-for change is described in terms of brightness - “light”, ”fire”, ”incandescent” and in terms of the divine - “miracle”, ”angel”. This contrasts very strongly with the language used in the depiction of the landscape.
§ The speaker describes the visionary experience in terms of heavenly generosity and love. Through her choice of words - semi-Biblical words such as “largesse” and “hallowing” - there is the suggestion that poetic inspiration is like a gift from heaven, that it has the quality of accident, favour and giftedness about it. Moreover, the poet is not inspired but rather the world is transformed in the poet’s presence. The energy of these flashes of inspiration is conveyed with the excited language of phrases such as “set the sight on fire in my eye” and “so shine as to seize my senses”, an energy that is emphasised through the poet’s use of alliteration and sibilance.
§ The rook gives the poet some hope and a “respite”, a rest from what the poet fears most - “total neutrality” - which suggests a state of non-being, a blank.
§ There is still some wariness on the poet’s part. She does after all suggest that these “miracles” may be “tricks”, i.e. a deception.
§ However the poem ends with an optimistic tone, with her belief or desire to believe, (or maybe even her need to believe), that this inspiration, however rare may return. The poem finishes with her waiting for poetic inspiration, personified as an “angel” making a “rare, random descent.”


Questions

1. Write a paragraph on your favourite image in the poem.
2. What might the landscape be a metaphor for?
3. The speaker uses several words to describe herself – “wary”, sceptical”, “politic”. What do these words mean? What other adjectives would you use to describe the personality of the speaker in the poem?
4. “I shall patch together a content of sorts.” What does the word “content” mean in this phrase?
5. Comment on the use of the word “again” in line 38.
6. Hope, despondency, creativity, miracles. Which of these themes had the greatest relevance to you?
7. How relevant is the title to the theme of the poem?