The Personal Myth of Sylvia Plath's Poetry

When it comes to a subjective form of art, especially poetry, the answer to the above question is even more difficult. Some critics say that one needs to have had a somewhat similar experience in order to write about something as big as the Holocaust, for example; others say that poetry written by someone who belongs to a different generation than the actual survivor, is a mere recording of the facts and lacks the sparkle that will lift the poem to the sphere of original poetry.

There are others, however, who believe that it is possible to write about the Holocaust, as long as one does not deal directly with the subject. One has to find an alternative route in order to reach the core of a particular historical event. This route, they believe, is through metaphor.