The Hanging Man
identity
lyric poem
dark
By the roots of my hair some god got hold of me. I sizzled in his blue volts like a desert prophet. The nights snapped out of sight like a lizard's eyelid : A world of bald white days in a shadeless socket. A vulturous boredom pinned me in this tree. If he were I, he would do what I did.
The Hanging Man - context Summary
Published in Ariel
Published in the 1962 Ariel collection, "The Hanging Man" presents compressed, violent imagery of being seized and immobilized. The speaker experiences electrical, prophetic anguish and a barren perception of time, visualized as a tree and a shadeless socket. The poem is often read against Plath's personal struggles; its confinement and relentless boredom reflect recurring themes of mental distress and entrapment in her later work.
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