Black Rook in Rainy Weather

Annotated Stanzas

The first stanza opens with Sylvia Plath seeing the rook in a tree, shaking rainwater from its feathers. She says she is only looking at the bird, and does not expect something special to happen (“Rook,” 4-5). The second stanza is Plath watching leaves fall, without assigning any particular significance to their falling. The third stanza shows Plath’s desire to find something special in nature, like a sign, but she says she is still content with the quality of light. The fourth stanza continues from the third, and shows Plath witnessing the light entering her kitchen and hitting her chair and table in such a way that they seem divine.

The fifth stanza feeds off of the fourth stanza, continuing Plath’s observation of mundane situations becoming great, giving meaning to her landscape also being dull and ruinous. The sixth stanza continues with her skepticism that an angel might appear in the landscape, but that the rook from the first stanza is so eye-catching that it seizes her senses with the light in its feathers. The seventh stanza continues, pushing through the blandness of her environment, to find miracles, which she mentions in the eighth stanza. Plath says that miracles are just tricks of radiance. The final line refers to the wait for the angel in the eighth stanza, and her wait for the angel to return with the miracles of radiance.

Images and Symbolism

Showing the individual symbolism in the poem, Plath uses the black rook to emphasize a plain, uninspired setting that she witnesses outside of her window. Rooks are not known for their beauty, being solid black, but Plath finds beauty in its simplicity and actions. “On the stiff twig up there/ Hunches a wet black rook / Arranging and rearranging its feathers in the rain- / I do not expect a miracle… / To set the sight on fire / In my eye…” (“Rook,” 1-7). The speaker does not expect the rook to become a sign of something greater, like a miracle, or to inspire her just by watching it, but she still is captivated by watching the light in the bird’s feathers as it preens.

The second mention of the rook shows that the bird has become something greater. “…I only know that a rook / Ordering its black feathers can so shine / As to seize my senses, haul / My eyelids up, and grant / A brief respite from fear / Of total neutrality…” (“Rook,” 27-32). The fear of total neutrality here demonstrates her fear of never being able to see something inspirational in nature; it suggests that the speaker struggles to find beauty and miracles in every day life, but seeing the shine of the rook’s feathers restored her confidence that miracles are possible.

The angel the speaker mentions is the manifestation of the miracle she does not expect. “At any rate, I now walk / Wary (for it could happen / Even in this dull, ruinous landscape); skeptical / Yet politic, ignorant / Of whatever angel any choose to flare / Suddenly at my elbow” (“Rook,” 22-27). Because the angel is so unexpected, particularly because the speaker seems to think that she is mostly beyond being influenced by divine sights, or miracles, the speaker is saying that she would be skeptical of any angel that did appear, thinking that it would be too good to be true, for an angel to bring her a miracle so large when she is settling for light shining in a rook’s feathers, or on her kitchen furniture.

The kitchen symbolizes the speaker’s domestic space, epitomizing the area of home and comfort, and allows the speaker to reveal her true concerns about her mental state. “A certain minor light may still / Lean incandescent / Out of kitchen table or chair / As if a celestial burning took / Possession of the most obtuse objects now and then— / Thus hallowing an interval / Otherwise inconsequent” (“Rook,” 14-20). To have this small miracle, or the light making a plain moment seem divine, seems to give her hope that she can experience miracles still.

References

Claire, W. F. (1966). That rare, random descent: The poetry and pathos of Sylvia Plath. The Antioch Review, 26(4), 552-560.

Hooper, M. The long wait for the angel: Sylvia Plath’s ‘black rook in rainy weather. In and Out of Literature, 180.