...we shall board our imagined ship and wildly sail among sacred islands of the mad till death shatters the fabulous stars and makes us real.
Sylvia PlathRead
I need more than anything right now what is, of course, most impossible, someone to love me, to be with me at night when I wake up in shuddering horror and fear of the cement tunnels leading down to the shock room, to comfort me with an assurance that no psychiatrist can quite manage to convey.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a deep longing for love and comfort in times of fear and vulnerability.
In this quote, Sylvia Plath articulates the profound need for love and companionship, particularly during moments of intense fear and anxiety. She contrasts this human desire with the limitations of professional psychological care, highlighting that emotional comfort from a loved one is an irreplaceable source of solace that transcends clinical understanding. The imagery of 'cement tunnels' and 'shock room' evokes feelings of despair, emphasizing the depth of her emotional state and the comforting presence someone special could provide.
Themes
LoveComfortFearCompanionshipVulnerability
In practice
Example use cases
During a spoken word event focused on mental health, one could share this quote to emphasize the importance of emotional support.
More from Sylvia Plath
All quotes →The hardest thing, I think, is to live richly in the present, without letting it be tainted & spoiled out of fear for the future or regret for a badly-managed past.
Sylvia PlathRead
It is as if my life were magically run by two electric currents: joyous positive and despairing negative--which ever is running at the moment dominates my life, floods it.
Sylvia PlathRead
You walked in, laughing, tears welling confused, mingling in your throat. How can you be so many women to so many people, oh you strange girl?
Sylvia PlathRead
I keep wanting to crawl back into the womb.
Sylvia PlathRead
It's the living, the eating, the sleeping that everyone needs. Ideas don't matter so much after all. My three best friends are Catholic. I can't see their beliefs, but I can see the things they love to do on earth. When you come right down to it, I do believe in the freedom of the individual.
Sylvia PlathRead
Similar quotes
The gift you offer another person is just your being.
Ram DassRead
Because we never stop silently loving those who we once loved out loud
Marina AbramovicRead
The face of a lover is an unknown, precisely because it is invested with so much of oneself. It is a mystery, containing, like all mysteries, the possibility of torment.
James A. BaldwinRead
Love, experienced thus, is a constant challenge; it is not a resting place, but a moving, growing, working together; even whether there is harmony or conflict; joy or sadness, is secondary to the fundamental fact that two people experience themselves from the essence of their existence, that they are only one with each other by being one with themselves, rather than by fleeing from themselves.
Erich FrommRead
There is enough love and good will in our movement to give energy to our struggle and still have plenty left over to break down and change the climate of hate and fear around us.
Cesar ChavezRead
Let us not love by words alone, but let us love until it hurts.
Mother TeresaRead