Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Fever 103 Degrees" by Sylvia Plath is a feverish, visceral poem that grapples with the themes of purity, sin, and transformation. At first glance, the poem appears to be a chaotic mingling of images and metaphors, but this chaos precisely mirrors the internal state of the speaker who is in the grips of a high fever. By examining Plath's use of classical and religious imagery, as well as the speaker's evolving emotional state, we can see how the poem undertakes a serious and critical inquiry into what it means to be 'pure.'

The poem begins with the question, "Pure? What does it mean?" This question introduces the central theme of the poem and indicates that the speaker is re-evaluating her understanding of purity. This reevaluation is set against a grim backdrop: "The tongues of hell / Are dull," linking the concept of purity to the religious notion of sin. By introducing Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the gates of Hades, Plath anchors the poem in the realm of classical mythology, suggesting that the speaker's struggle has a timeless, universal quality.

The phrase "Incapable / Of licking clean / The aguey tendon, the sin, the sin," suggests that the fever is a sort of purgatory, a place for the purification of the soul. Plath uses the image of "tinder cries" and the "indelible smell / Of a snuffed candle" to conjure a sense of urgency and impending loss. The references to "Love, love" and the image of scarves rolling like smoke from the speaker's body create a sense of vulnerability and danger. This connotes that love and desire are perhaps part of what needs to be 'purified.'

The poem also contains harrowing images that conjure a sense of global, even apocalyptic, suffering: "Choking the aged and the meek," "The hothouse baby in its crib," and "The ghastly orchid." These images create a panoramic view of suffering and mortality, linking personal torment to universal themes of pain, decline, and corruption. The line "Radiation turned it white / And killed it in an hour" adds an element of modern anxiety, with a reference to Hiroshima, suggesting that purity is not just a personal or spiritual matter but also has societal implications.

By the end of the poem, however, the speaker emerges into a different, perhaps more transcendent, understanding of purity. She compares herself to a Japanese paper lantern, "Infinitely delicate and infinitely expensive," embodying qualities traditionally associated with purity such as delicacy and value. Yet her final form is not one of meekness or fragility but of power and radiance: "I am a pure acetylene / Virgin / Attended by roses, / By kisses, by cherubim."

"Fever 103 Degrees" ends with a symbolic ascension to Paradise, rejecting external judgments of purity and sin: "Not you, nor him / Not him, nor him." The speaker takes control of her destiny, shedding her "old whore petticoats" and implying a breaking free from societal or even self-imposed labels.

In summary, "Fever 103 Degrees" presents an intense, hallucinogenic journey through the realms of sin, suffering, and societal expectation, culminating in a transcendent form of purity defined by the speaker herself. Plath creates a vivid, emotional landscape that wrestles with complex themes, ultimately leaving the reader with a sense of awe, both for the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of art.

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