What is defiance exactly? Is it an act of bravery in the face of a tyrant? A bold battle cry against a Goliath? Or could it simply be a refusal to engage, to fuel, the passions of our abusers?

The latter is certainly the case of this poem; The Courage of Shutting Up by Sylvia Plath. In the poem, Plath utilises her trademark mercurial imagery to paint a portrait of a woman long oppressed. She expresses the way in which words can be turned into weapons and how, sometimes, stoicism and silence can do more than any act of aggression.

This poem is taken from the restored edition of her famous collection Ariel and is a landmark moment of the poet reclaiming her agency and finally trusting her voice.

*Trigger Warning: This episode deals with the topics of suicide and domestic abuse.

Substack Show Notes: https://wordsthatburn.substack.com/p/the-courage-of-shutting-up-by-sylvia?r=th4eb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy

The show notes for today's episode, with full references can be found here: https://wordsthatburnpodcast.com/

You can get in touch with me on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wordsthatburnpodcast/

The music in this weeks episode is Falling Together by Scott Buckley and is used under creative commons license. Enjoy his music here: https://www.scottbuckley.com.au/

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