What is a detailed explanation of the stanzas of the poem "Ariel" by Sylvia Plath?Discuss the poem "Ariel" by Sylvia Plath pharagraph-wise. Please...

There seems to be critical agreement that "Ariel" is
ostensibly about Sylvia Plath's horse, although at the word "Shadow," she changes her
focus to a metaphysical, symbolic one. The only way to begin to (hopefully) grasp this
highly symbolic and suggestive poem is to look up every key word and try to find a
metaphorically suggestive meaning. Also integral to understanding is a knowledge of the
(true) legend of Lady
Godiva and the fairytale story " href="http://hca.gilead.org.il/li_merma.html">The Little Mermaid," as Path
uses allusions to both of these to make her point.

Which is
a good place to start: Plath's point seems to be that stripping away materialism (hands,
stringencies) leads to immersion in something larger than self (sea) for a larger
purpose than material gain (which is "shadows") and leads to the intellectual and
aesthetic judgments (eye) of a new beginning
(morning).

Space doesn't permit a thorough analysis, but we
can make a start together. Plath uses highly metaphorical language. In Stanza 1, note
that "stasis" suggests motionlessness in the night (blue) where there continuously
appear (pour) high rocks and hills (tor), symbolizing obstacles and journies
encountered. Recall that this is in night, the opposite of
"morning."

Stanza 2 seems to be a straightforward reference
to the experience of riding a horse which Plath becomes at one with, while her worries
(furrow) are torn away and she feels kinship (sister) with the horse. The next four
lines detail the experience of material life through the symbolic representation of
eating a blackberry. At the word "Shadows." the metaphysical shift
occurs.

The shift takes the reader from real life
experience to symbolic and spiritual experience. The irony is that Plath represents the
material experience as shadows, unreal, compared to the spiritual (Something else) that
compels her (hauls me). The Lady Godiva allusion sets up the image of a woman who
protests materialism (taxes against Coventry), sacrificing her self-dignity and honor to
ride unclothed, bare, exposed through the populace. This is a metaphor symbolized by
"dead hands," the symbol of collecting taxes, and "dead stringencies," the symbol of
rigorous requirements pertaining to money: materialism.

Now
comes the little mermaid allusion in which Plath throws herself into the sea in a
symbolic act of self-purging and self-sacrifice that is the result of protesting and
rejecting materialism in the Godiva allusion. In this act, Plath becomes part of the
vast and mighty ocean (a glitter of seas), while the child's cry of protest--symbolic of
innocent ignorance--vanishes from hearing (melts in the
wall).

With "And I" Plath describes her transcendence
following this self-sacrifice. She is metaphorically an arrow, meaning she moves with
the speed of an arrow; she is also metaphorically the dew of sea spray that speeds from
the ocean after her plunge of self-sacrifice (suicidal). She has come to be at one with
the drive into enlightened intellectual and aesthetic judgments (eye) that proceed from
(cauldron: brew) a new beginning (morning). With this, she moves from night (ignorance)
to day (enlightenment).

The latter half is unified with the
first half through the ideas of speed (horse, Stanza 3; arrow; dew that flies) and the
concept of being at one. In the first half, she is at one with the horse, in the latter,
with the drive to enlightenment.