Two Views of a Cadaver Room Poem by Sylvia Plath Summary, Notes and Line by Line Explanation in English

Introduction:

�Two Views of a Cadaver Room� is a poem written by Sylvia Plath. It is a dark poem that presents the poet�s views on cadavers, that is, corpses. 

About the Poet:

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) was a prominent American poet. She is known for her confessional mode of writing in her poetry. Famous works of hers include �Mad Girl�s Love Song�, �Tulips�, and �Daddy�.�

Structure:

This poem is divided into 2 stanzas consisting of 11 lines each. It is written from a third-person point of view.�

Analysis and Summary:

Stanza 1:

The day she visited the dissecting room

They had four men laid out, black as burnt turkey,

Already half unstrung. A vinegary fume

Of the death vats clung to them;

The white-smocked boys started working.

The head of his cadaver had caved in,

And she could scarcely make out anything

In that rubble of skull plates and old leather.

A sallow piece of string held it together.

In their jars the snail-nosed babies moon and glow.

He hands her the cut-out heart like a cracked heirloom.

Summary:

The stanza begins with the poet elaborating on her visit to the �dissecting room�. She proceeds to describe the corpses of the four men there, how they were charred and the �vinegary� stench of death that accompanied them. She then details the students who started working on the bodies. The poet concludes the stanza with further descriptions of their work with the �rubble of skull plates�, �A sallow piece of string�, �jars� with �snail-nosed babies� and �cut out hearts�. 

Analysis:

Here, the poet is observed to jump straight to the point. She describes the postmortem that took place there using vivid imagery in a highly clinical and grotesque manner. The tone can be noted to describe the process in an almost detached manner, seemingly minimising the horrific images presented. 

Stanza 2:

In Brueghel�s panorama of smoke and slaughter

Two people only are blind to the carrion army:

He, afloat in the sea of her blue satin

Skirts, sings in the direction

Of her bare shoulder, while she bends,

Finger a leaflet of music, over him,

Both of them deaf to the fiddle in the hands

Of the death�s-head shadowing their song.

These Flemish lovers flourish; not for long.

Yet desolation, stalled in paint, spares the little country

Foolish, delicate, in the lower right hand corner.

Summary:

In this stanza, the poem delves into �Brueghel�s� portrayal of �smoke and slaughter� in the painting �Triumph of Death� of Flemish Renaissance. Here, two blind people are said to be unaware of the �carrion army� or skeletal army. Both of them appear to be lost in their own world, deaf to the approaching army. The poet muses that these �Flemish lovers� will �flourish� but �not for long�. The poet concludes by stating that she finds a dark sort of humour in this desolate painting in them. 

Analysis:

In stark contrast to the analytic first view of cadavers, the poet presents an artistic view here. The difference between science and art can be perceived here, even on a grim subject such as corpses� while the first is cold and impersonal, the second is imaginative and almost hopeful� in the second, the lovers act as a symbol of hope amidst destruction and death.

Conclusion:

This is a thought-provoking poem. The poet ponders the idea of death through the lens of science and art