- clear eyephraseChapter 1 →
A gaze that is pure, unclouded, and innocent — free from the distortions of pain, prejudice, or experience that come with age.
“Your clear eye is the one absolutely beautiful thing.”
- zoo of the newphraseChapter 1 →
A vivid, playful image for the overwhelming variety of fresh experiences and wonders that the world offers to a newborn encountering everything for the first time.
“I want to fill it with color and ducks, / The zoo of the new.”
- troublousadjectiveChapter 1 →
Full of distress, turmoil, and agitation — an archaic or literary form of 'troubled,' suggesting a state of deep inner suffering that cannot be stilled.
“Not this troublous / Wringing of hands, this dark / Ceiling without a star.”
- wringing of handsphraseChapter 1 →
A gesture of twisting or squeezing one's own hands together, traditionally associated with grief, anxiety, or helpless despair.
“Not this troublous / Wringing of hands, this dark / Ceiling without a star.”
- ceiling without a starphraseChapter 1 →
An image of a low, dark, enclosed overhead surface that blocks out all light and hope — the opposite of an open sky, used here to represent the speaker's depression and sense of being trapped.
“Not this troublous / Wringing of hands, this dark / Ceiling without a star.”
ChildShort story by Sylvia Plath