...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 didn’t want my picture taken because I was going to cry. I didn’t know why I was going to cry, but I knew that if anybody spoke to me or looked at me too closely the tears would fly out of my eyes and the sobs would fly out of my throat and I’d cry for a week. I could feel the tears brimming and sloshing in me like water in a glass that is unsteady and too full.
Interpretation
This quote expresses a deep emotional struggle and the vulnerability of feeling overwhelmed by sadness.
In this quote, Sylvia Plath reveals her internal turmoil and the fear that her emotions will overflow if confronted. It illustrates the profound connection between her feelings and the physical reactions they provoke, emphasizing how overwhelming emotions can make someone retreat from social interaction to avoid displaying their vulnerability.
In practice
In a speech about mental health awareness, one might use this quote to illustrate the hidden struggles many people face.
...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.
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.
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.
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?
I keep wanting to crawl back into the womb.
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.
Jealousy is the dragon in paradise; the hell of heaven; and the most bitter of the emotions because associated with the sweetest.
No. The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?
Angry or not. It's a human emotion. But you can't walk around being angry all the time. What a dull person you'd have to be!
I could no more have stopped myself from feeling that sadness than you could stop yourself from smelling an apple that has been cut open on the table before you.
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.
Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.