The reader must search for the theme of the poem, and only from learning about Plath's own life can ascertain that the subject. Plath's esoteric references are less accessible than Lincoln's musings about suicide, death, and hell. However, both Plath and Lincoln do directly mention death in their poems. Lincoln's narrator mentions in line two of "Suicide's Soliloquy" his "carcass" and then in line three, the "buzzards" that "pick my bones." Likewise, in the second and third lines of "Edge," Plath describes "Her dead / Body."

Both poets focus on physical mortality with graphic descriptions of darkness and despair. Both also weave imagery of life and death to create complexity and lure the reader. Plath's subject matter is a dead woman who "wears the smile of accomplishment" after her death (line 3). Yet her life is "over" and references to blood and bones provide morbid motifs. Lincoln's first-person narrator is...
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