The Glass Essay

“Wuthering Heights” by Sylvia Plath (1961)

Like Anne Carson, the Brontës captivated the American poet, Sylvia Plath. Plath visited their Brontë estate in Haworth and wrote a poem, “Wuthering Heights,” named after Emily’s novel. The poem lacks the expansive narrative of “The Glass Essay,” but it shares many of the same literary devices, such as forceful imagery and personification. As with Carson, the Brontë legend begets violence and disquiet; Plath, too, wrote deeply intense poems about love and family. Unlike Carson, critics view Plath as a confessional poet and cast her as the speaker of her intimate poems, which include “Daddy” (1962) and “Lady Lazarus” (1962).

“Father’s Old Blue Cardigan” by Anne Carson (2000)

“Father’s Old Blue Cardigan” appears in Carson’s poetry collection, Men in the Off Hours (2000). The poem lends further credence that “The Glass Essay” is a personal poem about Carson’s life. As in “The Glass Essay,” the speaker’s father in “Father’s Old Blue Cardigan” suffers from a disease that adversely impacts his mental state. The speaker remembers the moment in which she knew he was “going mad inside his laws.” This poem, too, features domestic settings, personification, and an exploration of the “laws” that govern one’s perception of the world.