Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"The Times Are Tidy" by Sylvia Plath is an enigmatic yet incisive critique of a society that has seemingly sanitized itself of heroism, risk, and, arguably, meaning. Plath sets the stage in "this province of the stuck record," an immediate metaphor for stasis and repetitiveness. In a land bereft of challenges, even "the most watchful cooks go jobless," suggesting an unsettling ease that permeates the society. There is nothing left to fight, nothing to venture against, not even the symbolic lizard, which has "withered" to "leaf-size from lack of action." Here, the lizard serves as a metaphor for challenges or enemies, once a formidable force, now rendered inconsequential.

The poem features an array of characters: the hero, the cooks, the mayor, the lizard, the crone, and the children. Each plays a role in underlining the futility or absurdity of life in a 'too-tidy' world. For instance, the "mayor's rôtisserie turns / Round of its own accord," symbolizing a political sphere that has become self-perpetuating and needs no external forces to keep it spinning. Leadership here is shown as automated, meaningless, and possibly even decadent.

Plath weaves in historical allusions with lines like "History's beaten the hazard." The phrase acknowledges the triumph of order over chaos but questions the value of such victory. The tidiness extends to the extent that the society has not seen a crone (often a representation of wisdom or witchcraft) get burnt for "more than eight decades back." The implication is that whatever forces of nonconformity or magical realism that once infused this world with mystery and risk have been stamped out. The children may be "better for it," and "the cow milks cream an inch thick," yet the reader senses that this 'better' is tinged with irony.

Interestingly, Plath points out that the tidiness and the order have had some tangible benefits - "the children are better for it, / The cow milks cream an inch thick." However, these benefits are contextualized within a broader, stifling environment where there is "no career in the venture." It suggests that societal gains in comfort or prosperity have come at the cost of a profound existential vacuum.

In fewer lines than one might expect, Plath delivers a devastating commentary on the emptiness of a too-ordered world, a place where the elimination of risk and the sanitization of history have created a society that is superficially 'better' but fundamentally soulless. The poem suggests that a life devoid of challenge, spontaneity, and even danger is ultimately an unlived one. This theme is resonant with Plath's recurrent concerns about the stifling effects of societal norms and the need for something, anything, that defies explanation and thus makes life more livable. The times may be tidy, but at what cost? This is the unsettling question that Plath leaves lingering in the reader's mind.

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