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Five Quotes by Sylvia Plath to Make You Want to Take a Bath

Jenny Justice
4 min readAug 25, 2019

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Half Satire, All Inspiration

Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash

If you knew me when I was 16, or if you know me now, well, you know that I love Sylvia Plath. I know it is cliche. I know it is what teenage girls are almost expected to do. Heck, it is what all women poets are expected to do. But did you know I used to hold annual meetings every single year in college to celebrate her birth (February 11, 1932) and to mourn and honor her death (October 27, 1963 )? Well, I did. And I might again, you never know. If loving Sylvia is wrong, I don’t want to be right, folks.

Any poet looking for inspiration, or intimidation, let’s be real, need look no further than Sylvia. She will inspire. She will motivate. She will turn you into a ball of tears, rage, anxiety, and simultaneously fill you with wonder for the English language, written word, and poetic voice. How did she do it? Well, if you’ve read her journals you know. She did it by taking a lot of baths. Girl loved her baths.

And so does this poet and bath taker. Baths are exercise now, I hope you know. Science said so. But even before the science, Sylvia knew. She knew baths meant peace, quiet, relaxation and the mental space to think think think about feelings and poetry.

If you are a woman, a poet, or a bath taker or all three or at least one of these…

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Jenny Justice
Jenny Justice

Written by Jenny Justice

Writer| Mom | Poet | Book Nerd | Teacher? | Brings Poetry to life with empathy, connection, joy, justice, and feeling. Poetry Fangirl

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