Plath

Today started abruptly, as I jolted awake and was immediately aware that I was to meet my friend in a short couple of hours and I was, indeed, a mess. I don't think I could congratulate coffee enough for being such a lifesaver. I can't imagine the places I'd be without it.

Anyway, yes, I made yet another trip with my friend Sophie to the library today. On the rota, the task was "Get Work Done For Personal Statement". I was confident I'd get a fair bit down, but instead my time was spent reading Time magazine, inspecting pieces of Russian art and reading Sylvia Plath's biography. I decided to take it home. "Take" as in borrow it of course.

Well, here she is! I really enjoy her pieces of work, especially Ariel and I thought The Bell Jar was truly captivating. There are times whilst reading the novel, I feel like I can relate to how the protagonist feels, and it makes me worry, considering people reckoned The Bell Jar was a semi-autobiographical novel, and if you were not aware, Sylvia Plath was mentally ill and had committed suicide at the age of 30.

But then again, not everything is the same for everyone. Situations are dealt with differently by each person. In all honesty, "we are all unique" pretty much sums it up. So far I have reached the point of reading about Plath's maternal side of the family. As I read the story of her maternal grandparents, I feel as if I am reading a novel and then I realise that this is actually somebody's life. This is why I find biographies difficult to take seriously; I mistake reality for fiction and forget that these words depict the accounts of real events in history. Not quite sure why I am so fascinated by this.....

Sylvia Plath led a very colourful life. A life which could be considered almost "normal" to society's judging eyes, almost fulfilled. A life that could be mistaken for any person with a healthy mind, so I am looking forward to reading about the shadowed events in her life which could explain the reason for her angry and ambitious poetry.

    

I'm going to leave you here in the midst of Plath and dive into some work if my wireless keyboard decides to live.

Goodbye!

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Keats House

Yesterday I had such a tremendous(ly awful) headache, that I couldn't stick around long enough to post. But yesterday was beautiful. The day, the place I went to, everything was beautiful. I know for sure now that if I don't move into a townhouse in Regent Street or Great Portland Street or Kensington when I'm older, I'd move to Hampstead for sure. There's just everything I love about the place, the people (no hooded delinquents, not a single one), the boys/men are lot more good-looking, it had the perfect ratio of cafes to boutiques. The town planner planned it out perfectly; the quaint houses, the rose bushes, the cafes. Everything is perfect.
Anyway, the reason I was in Hampstead is that the school offered a select few to go to John Keats' house. If you don't know Keats, let me jog your memory for you. He wrote Lamia, Ode to a Nightingale, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, The Eve of St Agnes. He died of TB aged 25. If that still hasn't jogged your memory, you better look up his poems, because they are amazing.

His house was beautiful (I need to come up with better adjectives). I'd taken a few pictures:

I didn't take any pictures inside, I assumed I wasn't allowed to. His house was rather big, sort of like the house in the "recently updated" version of Peter Pan with Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook. Except a bit smaller. The garden was very large, but I suppose it'd look even larger in a way when Keats was alive considering the surrounding houses weren't there at that time, and only a great expanse of countryside.

It's just amazing to be in the home of a great poet who wrote such enthralling poetry, it was definitely captivating. We had a really cool workshop too, where a performance poet named Carol Ohemaa talked to us about how poetry doesn't always have to be deep, but can be about the little details in life that may seem insignificant. I think she was great, her enthusiam as inspiring and I think towards the end we were a lot more confident to voice our opinions. I like people like that. People who bring out the best in others. If you want to check out her work, you can on http://carolohemaapoetry.blogspot.com/

Just thought I'd like to share my day yesterday with you. I think it's time to perhaps get ready for my university open day now. It's going to be a long tiring day, and I feel a little bit of coffee is in order.

WARNING: I will be talking about coffee. A lot.

Have a great day!

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