Death comes to me again, a girlin a cotton slip, barefoot, giggling. It’s not so terrible she tells me, not like you think, all darknessand silence. There are windchimesand the smell of lemons, some daysit rains, but more often the air is dryand sweet. I sit beneath the staircasebuilt from hair and bone and listento the voices of the living. I like it, she says, shaking the dust from her hair, especially when they fight, and when they sing. Dorianne Laux
About This Quote

In the novel, The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath describes her experience in a mental hospital in "The Bell Jar" in which she describes the beauty in the small things in life. She talks about how when she is in the hospital, all she can hear are old women complaining about how her life is ruined because of her mental illness. However, once she arrives at the mental hospital, she begins to hear soft wind chimes in the breeze above her head. She also notices that there are no windows,and there are no mirrors.

This leads her to believe that all of these women are dead and that they are stuck to their own thoughts. Also, in this poem, Sylvia Plath believes that it is better to play music when there are voices around you. This means that it is better to play music when you are alone rather than when you are at a party with people talking over each other because you will be able to concentrate on your own thoughts without bothering anyone else.

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  1. Death comes to me again, a girlin a cotton slip, barefoot, giggling. It’s not so terrible she tells me, not like you think, all darknessand silence. There are windchimesand the smell of lemons, some daysit rains, but more often the air is dryand sweet. I...
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