Sylvia Plath wrote "Tulips" in March of 1961, after having her appendix removed and receiving get-well flowers from a friend. The speaker of the poem, hospitalized for an unspecified procedure, feels torn between her desire to stay in the peaceful world of the hospital and the need to return to the demands of normal life. More subtly, she feels competing urges to get well and remain sick, or even to live and die. A bouquet of get-well tulips, with its "loud" blood-red color, comes to represent the pain and vividness of life itself. "Tulips" was first published in The New Yorker in 1962 and collected posthumously in Ariel (1965).

• Read the full text of “Tulips”

• “Tulips” Summary

• “Tulips” Themes

  • 

    Health and Life vs. Sickness and Death

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-63
  • 

    Solitude and Freedom vs. Attachment and Commitment

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 3-7
    • Lines 18-35
    • Line 43
    • Line 48
    • Lines 55-63

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Tulips”

  • Lines 1-4

    The tulips are ...
    ... bed, these hands.   

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 5-7

    I am nobody; ...
    ... body to surgeons.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 8-10

    They have propped ...
    ... take everything in.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 11-14

    The nurses pass ...
    ... many there are.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 15-17

    My body is ...
    ... bring me sleep.   

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 18-21

    Now I have ...
    ... little smiling hooks.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 22-24

    I have let ...
    ... my loving associations.   

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 25-28

    Scared and bare ...
    ... been so pure.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 29-31

    I didn’t want ...
    ... idea how free——

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 32-35

    The peacefulness is ...
    ... a Communion tablet.   

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 36-39

    The tulips are ...
    ... wound, it corresponds.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 40-42

    They are subtle: ...
    ... round my neck.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 43-48

    Nobody watched me ...
    ... to efface myself.  

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 49-52

    The vivid tulips ...
    ... a loud noise.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 53-56

    Now the air ...
    ... without committing itself.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 57-61

    The walls, also, ...
    ... love of me.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 62-63

    The water I ...
    ... away as health.

    

    

    

    

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• “Tulips” Symbols

  • 

    Tulips

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.”
    • Lines 29-31: “I didn’t want any flowers, I only wanted / To lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty. / How free it is, you have no idea how free——”
    • Lines 36-61: “The tulips are too red in the first place, they hurt me. / Even through the gift paper I could hear them breathe    / Lightly, through their white swaddlings, like an awful baby.    / Their redness talks to my wound, it corresponds. / They are subtle: they seem to float, though they weigh me down,    / Upsetting me with their sudden tongues and their color,    / A dozen red lead sinkers round my neck. / Nobody watched me before, now I am watched.    / The tulips turn to me, and the window behind me / Where once a day the light slowly widens and slowly thins,    / And I see myself, flat, ridiculous, a cut-paper shadow    / Between the eye of the sun and the eyes of the tulips,    / And I have no face, I have wanted to efface myself.    / The vivid tulips eat my oxygen. / Before they came the air was calm enough, / Coming and going, breath by breath, without any fuss.    / Then the tulips filled it up like a loud noise. / Now the air snags and eddies round them the way a river    / Snags and eddies round a sunken rust-red engine.    / They concentrate my attention, that was happy    / Playing and resting without committing itself. / The walls, also, seem to be warming themselves. / The tulips should be behind bars like dangerous animals;    / They are opening like the mouth of some great African cat,    / And I am aware of my heart: it opens and closes / Its bowl of red blooms out of sheer love of me.”

• “Tulips” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “tulips,” “too”
    • Line 3: “learning,” “lying”
    • Line 4: “light lies,” “white walls”
    • Line 5: “nobody,” “nothing”
    • Line 9: “white,” “will”
    • Line 17: “bring,” “numbness,” “bright,” “needles,” “bring”
    • Line 21: “smiles,” “skin,” “smiling”
    • Line 25: “plastic-pillowed,” “trolley”
    • Line 26: “teaset,” “bureaus,” “books”
    • Line 27: “Sink,” “sight,” “water went”
    • Line 28: “nun now,” “never”
    • Line 33: “nothing,” “name”
    • Line 40: “subtle,” “seem”
    • Line 42: “red,” “round”
    • Line 44: “tulips turn,” “window”
    • Line 45: “Where once,” “widens”
    • Line 50: “came,” “calm”
    • Line 51: “Coming”
    • Line 53: “snags,” “round,” “river”
    • Line 54: “Snags,” “round,” “sunken,” “rust-red”
    • Line 57: “walls,” “warming”
    • Line 58: “behind bars”
    • Line 61: “bowl,” “blooms”
    • Line 62: “water,” “warm,” “salt,” “sea”
    • Line 63: “comes,” “country”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “tulips,” “too,” “it is winter”
    • Line 2: “white,” “quiet”
    • Line 3: “I,” “lying by myself quietly”
    • Line 4: “light lies,” “white”
    • Line 6: “name,” “day”
    • Line 7: “history,” “anesthetist”
    • Line 9: “eye,” “white,” “lids,” “will”
    • Line 10: “Stupid pupil”
    • Line 12: “pass,” “pass,” “caps”
    • Line 13: “one just,” “another”
    • Line 15: “pebble,” “them,” “tend”
    • Line 16: “Tends,” “pebbles,” “must run,” “gently”
    • Line 17: “needles,” “sleep”
    • Line 18: “baggage”
    • Line 19: “patent,” “black”
    • Line 20: “child smiling”
    • Line 21: “smiles,” “skin, little,” “smiling”
    • Line 25: “Scared,” “bare”
    • Line 31: “free,” “free”
    • Line 32: “peacefulness”
    • Line 36: “tulips,” “too,” “first,” “hurt”
    • Line 38: “Lightly,” “white”
    • Line 41: “Upsetting,” “sudden tongues,” “color”
    • Line 42: “dozen,” “red lead,” “neck”
    • Line 45: “light,” “widens”
    • Line 46: “flat,” “shadow”
    • Line 48: “face,” “efface”
    • Line 50: “enough”
    • Line 51: “Coming,” “breath,” “breath,” “any,” “fuss”
    • Line 53: “eddies”
    • Line 54: “eddies,” “sunken rust-red engine”
    • Line 55: “They concentrate”
    • Line 56: “committing itself”
    • Line 57: “walls, also”
    • Line 59: “African cat”
    • Line 60: “opens,” “closes”
    • Line 62: “water,” “salt”
    • Line 63: “comes,” “country”

  • Personification

    

    

    

    

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    Where personification appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.”
    • Line 10: “Stupid pupil, it has to take everything in.”
    • Lines 37-38: “Even through the gift paper I could hear them breathe    / Lightly, through their white swaddlings, like an awful baby.   ”
    • Line 39: “Their redness talks to my wound, it corresponds.”
    • Lines 43-47: “Nobody watched me before, now I am watched.    / The tulips turn to me, and the window behind me / Where once a day the light slowly widens and slowly thins,    / And I see myself, flat, ridiculous, a cut-paper shadow    / Between the eye of the sun and the eyes of the tulips,   ”
    • Lines 50-51: “Before they came the air was calm enough, / Coming and going, breath by breath, without any fuss.   ”

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “The tulips”
    • Line 2: “how,” “white,” “how,” “how”
    • Line 3: “I,” “peacefulness”
    • Line 4: “these,” “white,” “these”
    • Line 5: “I,” “I”
    • Line 6: “I,” “my,” “and my,” “to the”
    • Line 7: “And my,” “to the,” “and my,” “to”
    • Line 9: “white”
    • Line 11: “pass,” “pass”
    • Line 12: “pass,” “pass,” “white”
    • Line 15: “pebble,” “tend”
    • Line 16: “Tends,” “pebbles”
    • Line 17: “They bring me,” “they bring me”
    • Line 20: “smiling”
    • Line 21: “smiles,” “smiling”
    • Line 26: “my,” “my,” “my”
    • Line 32: “peacefulness”
    • Line 36: “The tulips,” “red”
    • Line 38: “white”
    • Line 39: “redness”
    • Line 44: “The tulips”
    • Line 47: “the eye of the,” “the eyes of the,” “tulips”
    • Line 48: “face,” “efface”
    • Line 49: “The vivid tulips”
    • Line 51: “breath,” “breath”
    • Line 52: “the tulips”
    • Line 53: “snags and eddies round”
    • Line 54: “Snags and eddies round,” “red”
    • Line 58: “The tulips”
    • Line 59: “opening”
    • Line 60: “opens”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Line 5: “I have nothing to do with explosions.”
    • Line 10: “Stupid pupil, it has to take everything in.”
    • Line 15: “My body is a pebble to them,”
    • Line 21: “Their smiles catch onto my skin, little smiling hooks.”
    • Lines 22-24: “I have let things slip, a thirty-year-old cargo boat    / stubbornly hanging on to my name and address. / They have swabbed me clear of my loving associations.   ”
    • Lines 26-27: “I watched my teaset, my bureaus of linen, my books    / Sink out of sight, and the water went over my head.   ”
    • Line 28: “I am a nun now, I have never been so pure.”
    • Line 40: “they seem to float, though they weigh me down,   ”
    • Line 41: “Upsetting me with their sudden tongues”
    • Line 42: “A dozen red lead sinkers round my neck.”
    • Line 45: “Where once a day the light slowly widens and slowly thins,   ”
    • Lines 46-47: “a cut-paper shadow    / Between the eye of the sun and the eyes of the tulips,   ”
    • Lines 60-61: “And I am aware of my heart: it opens and closes / Its bowl of red blooms out of sheer love of me.”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Lines 3-4: “I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly / As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands.   ”
    • Lines 8-10: “They have propped my head between the pillow and the sheet-cuff    / Like an eye between two white lids that will not shut. / Stupid pupil, it has to take everything in.”
    • Lines 11-12: “The nurses pass and pass, they are no trouble, / They pass the way gulls pass inland in their white caps,”
    • Lines 15-16: “My body is a pebble to them, they tend it as water / Tends to the pebbles it must run over, smoothing them gently.”
    • Line 19: “My patent leather overnight case like a black pillbox,   ”
    • Lines 34-35: “It is what the dead close on, finally; I imagine them    / Shutting their mouths on it, like a Communion tablet.   ”
    • Lines 37-38: “Even through the gift paper I could hear them breathe    / Lightly, through their white swaddlings, like an awful baby.   ”
    • Line 52: “Then the tulips filled it up like a loud noise.”
    • Lines 53-54: “Now the air snags and eddies round them the way a river    / Snags and eddies round a sunken rust-red engine.   ”
    • Line 58: “The tulips should be behind bars like dangerous animals;   ”
    • Line 59: “They are opening like the mouth of some great African cat,   ”
    • Lines 62-63: “The water I taste is warm and salt, like the sea, / And comes from a country far away as health.”

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here. / Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in.   ”
    • Line 4: “As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands.   ”
    • Lines 8-9: “They have propped my head between the pillow and the sheet-cuff    / Like an eye between two white lids that will not shut.”
    • Lines 11-14: “The nurses pass and pass, they are no trouble, / They pass the way gulls pass inland in their white caps, / Doing things with their hands, one just the same as another,    / So it is impossible to tell how many there are.”
    • Line 17: “They bring me numbness in their bright needles,”
    • Lines 19-21: “My patent leather overnight case like a black pillbox,    / My husband and child smiling out of the family photo;    / Their smiles catch onto my skin, little smiling hooks.”
    • Lines 25-27: “Scared and bare on the green plastic-pillowed trolley    / I watched my teaset, my bureaus of linen, my books    / Sink out of sight,”
    • Lines 36-41: “The tulips are too red in the first place, they hurt me. / Even through the gift paper I could hear them breathe    / Lightly, through their white swaddlings, like an awful baby.    / Their redness talks to my wound, it corresponds. / They are subtle: they seem to float, though they weigh me down,    / Upsetting me with their sudden tongues and their color,   ”
    • Lines 44-47: “The tulips turn to me, and the window behind me / Where once a day the light slowly widens and slowly thins,    / And I see myself, flat, ridiculous, a cut-paper shadow    / Between the eye of the sun and the eyes of the tulips,   ”
    • Lines 50-54: “Before they came the air was calm enough, / Coming and going, breath by breath, without any fuss.    / Then the tulips filled it up like a loud noise. / Now the air snags and eddies round them the way a river    / Snags and eddies round a sunken rust-red engine.   ”
    • Line 57: “The walls, also, seem to be warming themselves.”
    • Line 62: “The water I taste is warm and salt, like the sea,”

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 18-28
    • Lines 29-56

  • Asyndeton

    

    

    

    

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    Where asyndeton appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in.   ”
    • Lines 3-4: “lying by myself quietly / As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands.   ”
    • Lines 26-27: “I watched my teaset, my bureaus of linen, my books    / Sink out of sight,”
    • Line 33: “And it asks nothing, a name tag, a few trinkets.”

• “Tulips” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Excitable
  • Snowed-in
  • Anesthetist
  • Sheet-cuff
  • Gulls
  • Overnight case
  • Pillbox
  • Cargo boat
  • Swabbed
  • Trolley
  • Teaset
  • Bureaus
  • Trinkets
  • Communion tablet
  • Swaddlings
  • Corresponds
  • Sinkers
  • Cut-paper shadow
  • Efface
  • Eddies
  • Committing
  • Great African cat
  • (Location in poem: Line 1: “The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Tulips”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Tulips” Speaker

• “Tulips” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Tulips”

• More “Tulips” Resources

  • External Resources

    • More About the Poet — A biography of Plath at the Poetry Foundation.

    • The Poem in Plath's Own Voice — Listen to Sylvia Plath reading "Tulips."

    • Plath, Silence, and Identity — A biographical article on Plath, including context about the appendectomy that inspired "Tulips."

    • A Brief Guide to Confessionalism — An introduction to the poetic movement Plath is closely linked with.

    • An Interview with Plath — Listen to an interview with the poet, recorded the same year as "Tulips" was published.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Sylvia Plath

    • Ariel

    • Cut

    • Daddy

    • Edge

    • Fever 103°

    • Kindness

    • Lady Lazarus

    • Mad Girl's Love Song

    • Metaphors

    • Mirror

    • Morning Song

    • Nick and the Candlestick

    • Poppies in July

    • Poppies in October

    • Sheep in Fog

    • Sow

    • The Applicant

    • The Arrival of the Bee Box

    • The Moon and the Yew Tree

    • The Munich Mannequins

    • The Night Dances

    • Words

    • You're

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