Sari's Thoughts

A Comparison of Maggie Smith and Sylvia Plath Poetry

^{By Sari D’Agostino}

_{^{Motherhood. Accessed via https://https://unsplash.com/photos/stop-watch-at-15-u0FDwnbODKs}}

My mom often says th¹at becoming a mom is the best thing to have happened to her, and many poets seem to agree. Maggie Smith enjoys writing about her children, especially about how her children look at the world in a different way than she does. This style is unique to her, as most poets write about how their children changed their lives, or how their children act, or even how their children are ungrateful. 

In her poem, “You Could Never Take A Car To Greenland,” Smith recounts a conversation she had with her young daughter, where her daughter listed imaginary ways that you could drive to Greenland. Sylvia Plath wrote a poem somewhat similar to this one, called “You’re,” listing different characteristics of her young child. 

Plath describes her child as “happiest on your hands” (line 1) and “Jumpy as a Mexican bean” (line 16). These are both characteristics of young children; happy and jumpy. Plath’s descriptions imply that, at the time that this was written (published in 1961), the child was very young, likely either preschool- or kindergarten-aged.

Smith’s poem implies the same idea: that, at the time, her daughter was also very young, likely around the same age. In her poem, Smith writes about her daughter describing how one might be able to drive to Greenland, saying things like, “the ocean / turned to ice and promised not to crack” (lines 2-3) and “we could row / our country there” (lines 5-6). To a more mature mind, these ideas are absurd. However, to a young mind, these are perfectly logical ideas that should probably be considered.

Both Plath and Smith wrote about their young children in a glowing way, describing their optimism and curiosity. However, Plath wrote about characteristics of her child, whereas Smith wrote about a specific encounter that she had with her daughter. 

Plath described her child using brief moments in time, saying things like, “Mute as a turnip from the Fourth / Of July to All Fools’ Day” (lines 7-8) and “Snug as a bud” (line 13). These details give the reader a brief glimpse into different aspects of Plath’s life with her child, but nothing large enough to paint a full picture.

Smith, however, details one conversation had with her daughter once. This gives the reader a full picture of the moment when this happened, but doesn’t give the reader any insight into any other part of Smith’s life with her daughter. The combination of other poems give that insight when put together.

“You Could Never Take A Car To Greenland” also ends on a more serious note. The last four lines of Smith’s poem begin with the phrase, “Unless it’s a trick, a lie” (line 14). Previously, Smith’s daughter had asked why Greenland is called Greenland, even though it’s icy. Smith states, “the name Greenland is an ad for Greenland” (lines 14-15), referencing the lies and false promises that are told in modern advertisements for various products and services. Even though Smith’s daughter didn’t explicitly mention ads or lies, she led the conversation to a place where Smith and the reader are forced to think about it. 

Plath’s poem “You’re” does end with the line, “A clean slate, with your own face on” (line 18), referring to a child having their entire lives stretching in front of them, unlike an adult, who has already made too many decisions to have as wide of a path. However, Plath reached this conclusion by watching her child, whereas Smith reached her conclusion by conversing with her daughter. 

However, both poems clearly show that Plath and Smith love their children, as they both describe different parts of their lives with joy, not resentment. It is clear to see that both Plath and Smith’s lives changed, but they don’t regret it. Although Sylvia Plath passed away in 1963, her daughter is living proof of her love and legacy in the world.

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A Comparison of Maggie Smith’s Poetry and Taylor Swift’s Songwriting

^{By Sari D’Agostino}

_{^{Stopped time. Image source: Linda Perez Johannessen, “stop watch at 15,” 2018. Accessed via https://https://unsplash.com/photos/stop-watch-at-15-u0FDwnbODKs}}

Maggie Smith’s poem, “Twentieth Century” reflects on the narrator’s memories from a time that no longer exists. As a massive Swiftie, I immediately saw a connection between this poem and Taylor Swift’s song, “Right Where You Left Me,” a bonus track from her ninth studio album evermore. Both works discuss feeling stuck in a moment while the rest of the world continues to move forward.

One thing that helped me draw this connection was the way that Smith personifies the twentieth century. Smith writes about the century as if it is a person, saying that it braided the narrator’s hair (lines 9-10), talked to them (lines 12-13), even played music for them (lines 15-16). This makes Smith’s Twentieth Century feel almost like the narrator’s ex, and “Right Where You Left Me” is about an ex and a failed relationship.

Another similarity that stood out to me was the idea of missing someone, or something, that has moved on. Smith writes, “You’re tucked into / a sleeping car, rolling to god-knows-where, and I’m / lonely for you” (lines 4-6), explaining how her character of the Twentieth Century has moved on from the narrator, driving away while the narrator still longs for them. Swift writes of a similar idea, explaining how her character knows that her ex is out there living their own life, but she is still waiting for them to come back. She sings, “I’m sure that you got a wife out there / Kids and Christmas, but I’m unaware / ‘Cause I’m right where… / But if you ever think you got it wrong / I’m right where you left me.” These small examples show how Swift’s character suspects that her ex has moved on, finding a wife and creating a typical American family life. However, Swift’s character misses them and is waiting for them to come back.

After discussing waiting for someone who has moved on, Smith adds a more personal touch to her poem, listing small things that the Twentieth Century did to the narrator when they were, metaphorically, together. In addition to braiding their hair, talking to them, and playing music, the Twentieth Century also kissed the narrator in front of everyone (lines 10-11). These small acts of affection show how attached the narrator is to the Twentieth Century. A similar experience can be found in “Right Where You Left Me,”  when Swift sings, “And you’re sitting in front of me…Cross-legged in the dim light, everything was just right / I, I could feel the mascara run.” Although the experience is not the same as the ones discussed in Smith’s poem, both are moments in time. In “Right Where You Left Me,” Swift is describing a moment in her character’s life, specifically the moment when her ex broke up with her. In “Twentieth Century,” Smith is listing snapshots of the narrator’s relationship with the Twentieth Century. Both discuss moments in time that clearly meant a lot to their respective narrators.

Lastly, both Smith’s poem, “Twentieth Century” and Swift’s song, “Right Where You Left Me” have one main overarching idea: time continuing to move on while the narrator is frozen. In Swift’s song, this idea is introduced immediately, as she opens the song with the lyrics, “Friends break up, friends get married / Strangers get born, strangers get buried / Trends change, rumors fly through new skies / But I’m right where you left me.” She describes the passage of time through life events, such as marriages, births, and even changing of trends, but the character that Swift created is frozen in time, with her hair pinned up, still in the same place that her ex left her. Smith makes it a little bit harder to find this idea in her poem, but it’s still there. Smith begins her poem with the line, “I must have missed the last train out of this gray city” (line 1), showing that her character feels like she is the only one left. Towards the end of the poem, Smith writes, “On every frequency, someone hushes me. Is it you? / Twentieth Century, are you there?” (lines 21-22), showing that her character is still waiting for the Twentieth Century to come back. Time has continued to move on, shown by the idea of the trains leaving, but the character is still stuck, listening to the radio (line 2) and waiting for the Twentieth Century to return, similar to how Swift’s character is sitting at the restaurant, waiting for her ex to come back.

Both Maggie Smith and Taylor Swift are incredible writers, so it’s only natural that they would one day end up writing about the same universal idea: time.

^{(Word Count: 768)}

^{By Sari D’Agostino}

When most people hear the name “Maggie Smith,” they likely think of beloved British actor Dame Maggie Smith. However, there is a poet by the same name, writing out of Columbus, Ohio, United States of America (maggiesmithpoet.com); many of her poems capture what it’s like to be a parent to young children in today’s world, where it feels as if everything is bad.

If you’re like me, you find poems hard to understand; the ideas are almost always completely convoluted and hidden within layers of figurative language and unnecessarily complicated vocabulary. However, Smith’s poem “Threshold” is anything but confusing. With lines such as, “You want to be / on both sides of here / and there, now and then” (lines 3-5), it’s clear that Smith is discussing the want to have the “best of both worlds,” and the constant back-and-forth format of the stanzas shows the idea of standing in the threshold, poking your head into the rooms on either side but never fully stepping in either direction. The second half of the poem is devoted to exploring new worlds and experiences when you go through the metaphorical doorway, creating imagery of a peaceful field with the lines, “Crossing a field, wading / through nothing / but timothy grass” (lines 14-16). In this poem, Smith uses simple language, symbolism, and imagery to convince the reader to step over the “threshold” and learn to do something new.

Smith is a parent of two young children, one son and one daughter (maggiesmithpoet.com). The poem may be talking about the transition to being a parent. I’m not a parent, but I would assume it is a scary experience, and you might want things to stay the same. However, “Threshold” explains that taking the jump can lead to incredible new experiences, just as becoming a parent can teach you new things about yourself and the world around you. Smith might be expressing her joy for taking that leap.

In “Threshold,” Smith makes the meaning of the poem clear, and the reader is able to glean the message easily, without having to read too in-depth. However, not all of Smith’s poems are like this; the poem “Parachute” is an example of one of her poems that is hard to understand.

“Parachute” discusses how the world is a dark place, citing an example of a mother jumping out of an eighth-story window with an infant on her chest (lines 8-10). The narrator then talks about how the world is darker today than it was when they were younger, repeating questions about death and fires from their preschool-age daughter and saying, “When I was a child, I churched / my hands, I steepled my hands, / and all the people were inside” (lines 20-22). In other words, the narrator’s child is asking about death, but when they were her age, they played hand games. 

The poem seems simple enough to understand at first, but the end is where it gets confusing. Smith discusses a couple of beautiful things in the world, such as a child sliding down a fire pole, something many readers likely did or dreamed about doing when they were young. Then, in seven lines, Smith wraps up her poem. “But what’s whole doesn’t sell / itself as such: buy this whole apple, this whole car. Live this whole life. / A lie is not a lie if the teller believes it? Next time the man / in the video will not ignite. / The baby will open like a parachute” (lines 34-40). What does this mean? Is the world whole or broken? Is it still a lie? The unanswered questions and contradictions make the message of “Parachute” difficult to understand, and I still don’t totally get it. 

The poem was published in 2017 in Smith’s book Good Bones. It seems to be inspired by Smith’s daughter’s trip to the fire station and a video that she saw. But what else was happening in 2017? I was nine turning ten, my main worries were Hamilton and getting my braces off. Maybe there were major events happening around the world that made Smith believe that the world is a dark place, or maybe events in her personal life. Either way, Smith wrote the poem from the perspective of someone who believes that the world is bad.

“Threshold” and “Parachute” are on opposite ends of the spectrum of understanding poems; “Threshold” is easy to understand while “Parachute” is difficult. Maggie Smith did write a poem that is perfectly in the middle; the Goldilocks Poem, if you will. 

“First Fall” is about a parent showing the world to their newborn child during the fall season. The narrator points out the nature around them, showing their child the sycamore trees (line 3), the falling leaves (lines 4-5), the stars (lines 7-8), and the pond with ducks (lines 8-9), stating that they are their child’s guide (line 1). Smith then writes, “Fall is when the only things you know / because I’ve named them / begin to end” (lines 10-12). The imagery makes it easy to picture the scene in your head and put yourself into it, seeing the same sights that the narrator points out. 

However, the poem is still complex, changing tones rapidly in the second half. When Smith writes about fall being the end of everything the child knows, there’s a hopeless tone. But, Smith writes about the beauty of winter directly afterwards with a more peaceful and content tone. Smith then goes right back into hopelessness with the lines, “The first time you see / something die, you won’t know it might / come back” (lines 16-18). Finally, Smith concludes the poem with one final, almost pleading remark: “I’m desperate for you / to love the world because I brought you here” (lines 18-19). The changing tones makes it difficult for the reader to understand the message of the poem; difficult, but not impossible. The imagery is still there, and the language is relatively simple; the message is that there is good in the world for the next generation.

Many of Smith’s poems discuss how she feels like the world is a dark place today. Smith has two young children, and likely took them for walks in Schiller Park, just as the narrator did with their child in the poem. Smith likes to discuss how she feels that the world is not a friendly place for her children, and how she hopes that they can see a better world than she can through her experience-weary eyes. In other words, Smith hopes that her children’s judgement on the goodness of the world isn’t clouded like hers is.

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^{By Sari D’Agostino}

_{^{Daybreak. Image source: Elliot Engelmann, “silhouette of mountain,” 2015. Accessed via https://unsplash.com/photos/silhouette-of-mountain-DjlKxYFJlTc}}

Maggie Smith’s poem, “How Dark the Beginning” discusses light and dark. Smith explains how, in literature and TV, light has a positive connotation, saying that the sun gives the impression that light is “protective” and shows that “no hearts were flayed, / no bodies broken on a day like today.” She adds that, in films, the sunrise “tells us everything / will be all right.” Dark, on the other hand, has a more negative connotation, representing “danger… dragging / its shadow across the screen.” This idea of darkness representing danger can be seen in many books and movies, such as horror movies, which almost exclusively take place at nighttime because the dark of night is seen as more scary, creepy, and unsettling than the light of day.

However, Smith doesn’t actually talk about the dark. She begins the poem by saying, “All we ever talk of is light…what I consider / dawn is darker than all that.” She then goes on to discuss only light until the last three lines of the poem. Smith makes it seem like she is going to stray from “the norm” and talk about the dark, but instead she spends most of the poem talking about light. Why?

I think Smith does this for two reasons. First, to show that it is impossible to stray completely from societal norms. She starts her poem by stating that all we talk about is light, making it seem as if she is going to be different and talk about the dark. However, she then talks about light. This shows that, no matter what, Smith is unable to get away from talking about light, even if she wants to talk about darkness. Society talks about light, so she does, too.

The second reason why I think Smith wrote the poem in this way is to mirror the unpredictability of darkness that is shown in modern media. The dark is painted as unpredictable, and therefore dangerous, in books and TV because characters do not know what is there. To show this, Smith allows the reader to believe that the poem was going to talk about darkness and then, unpredictably, wrote about light. This adds another layer of complexity to the poem, because Smith is simultaneously following predictable societal patterns, while also writing unpredictably and surprising the reader by simply talking about light instead of darkness.

Smith completes the poem by returning to discussing the dark. Smith makes the point that each day begins with darkness, saying that there are “so many hours” between the previous day “receding and what we recognize / as morning.” Here, Smith shifts the definition of “day.” She starts with society’s traditional definition of day, or the hours of sunlight, and turns it into her definition, which aligns more with the scientific definition of a full twenty-four hour day beginning at midnight. By saying that there is time between day ending and morning, she is shifting the definition of day from “the end of light” to “twenty-four hours” in just one sentence. Smith explains that the sunrise does not start the day, but instead the time between sunset and sunrise holds the true start to the day. 

Smith ends the poem with the lines, “Let us / talk more of how dark / the beginning of the day is.” This is the time of day when the world is open to you. If you’ve ever woken up before the sunrise, you know what she means by this. The rest of the world is still asleep, and everything is incredibly peaceful. You feel like you are alone, but free; the world is your oyster and you can make the day into anything you want.

This is Smith’s main point; modern media and society paint light and sunlight as “good” while darkness is “bad,” but in reality, darkness can be just as good as light. The unknown of the darkness before dawn means that you have unlimited opportunities and can make the day into anything you’d like. Once the sun rises, the day’s already begun.

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