Sheep in Fog:

Plath's Complex Use of Metaphor as a Tool of Higher Knowledge

Sheep in Fog ¹

The hills step off into whiteness.
People or stars
Regard me sadly, I disappoint them.

The train leaves a line of breath.
O slow
Horse the colour of rust,

Hooves, dolorous bells -
All morning the
Morning has been blackening,

A flower left out.
My bones hold a stillness, the far
Fields melt my heart.

They threaten
To let me through to a heaven
Starless and fatherless, a dark water.

Sheep in Fog
"The hills step off into whiteness.
People or stars
Regard me sadly, I disappoint them."

"Fog" is an important catalyst in this process because it indicates a state of perception and comprehension where the definite borders between concepts break down allowing the concepts to merge into each other. This merger is more than one concept flowing into and becoming another. It is a synthesis of concepts into a higher unifying concept. The higher concept necessarily causes an expansion of consciousness in the reader because this synthesis is a new addition to the reader's inner being. Images from the world are juxtaposed to push the reader's mind into an archetypal world which is the source of the fragmented pieces to which we're usually accustomed. Furthermore, although we are guided by the poet, the particular way we as individuals discover the higher unifying concepts is unique to each of us; therefore, the reader, as well as the poet, participates in a creative process in the archetypal source of all consciousness. The creative logos works through the individual.

The poet explicitly states the images "sheep" and "fog" only in the title. The first stanza mentions "hills" and "whiteness". These concepts already blend into "sheep" and "fog". Notice how the hills "step" which give them an animal or human quality. Then the sheep are further metamorphosed into "people" and "stars" indicating a further personification and a reaching into the cosmos. So Plath confronts a"white being" both cosmic and earthly that "regards" her presence and reacts to her inner being. This being seems to pass judgment and the "I" of the poet is aware of the disappointment in this being. Later in the poem this being may "let her through" to a new realm of being indicating that "higher sheep concept-being" functions a a guardian at a doorway of consciousness.

"The train leaves a line of breath.
O slow
Horse the colour of rust,

Hooves, dolorous bells -
All morning the
Morning has been blackening,"

Interestingly, the metamorphosis of color works into the extended metaphor. The whiteness of the opening gives way to the iron(rust color) of the horse which is an extension of the poets will (see Ariel). Her vision of whiteness is interrupted by the mechanical train. This movement draws the poet's consciousness from the static vision of the "white being" to her own inner will and blood. The "slowness" of her horse merges with the sound image of funeral bells and the rust color becomes the color of black ash. This blackness is the leftover materiality of the will's combustion process just as the train's "breath" or smoke is the waste product of its movement.

"A flower left out.
My bones hold a stillness, the far
Fields melt my heart."

They threaten
To let me through to a heaven
Starless and fatherless, a dark water."

A vision of a flower draws the poet's perception back to the "being of whiteness". The flower image recalls the "lotus flower" which is a "sense organ" of the spiritual world, the chakra of the Hindus. The stillness of the white being reaches into the poet's bones, the most mineralized portion of the poet's being.

The "sheep being" then goes beyond the physical bones and works directly into the poet's emotional life. The heart melts and the guardian's gate is opened revealing the spiritual world. This world of archetypes (heaven) is flooded by the blackness of Plath's inner being. Although Plath cannot move through it at this point of time, she can see how that new world is dependent on her inner state. Plath constantly pushed against new doors of perception but these doors always revealed her inner self with great clarity

How Concrete Conceptual Domains Act as Doors to Higher Perceptions

Metaphor is not only a figure of speech which compares two seemingly unrelated subjects but also a form of higher cognition. Metaphor juxtaposes familiar concepts to reveal higher, archetypal concepts. These higher concepts cannot be literally stated in familiar language. The higher concepts are "unnamed", no single definable word attaches to these "thought beings" nor are they accessible to abstract, logical reasoning. They are poetical intuitions that incarnate into thought and language through the skilled manipulation of familiar concepts.

In "Sheep in Fog", as in other poems, part of Plath's psycho-spiritual makeup is the "subject" which receives attributes from the images. Part of her "I" or ego is the subject or "tenor" and the entire poem is the "vehicle" which incarnates the supersensible mystery of Plath's being. Part of her "I" stands at the doorway between the familiar concepts of earthly experience and the higher archetypes that weave into existence. She stands at the doorway of a world and merges with the process of creation. A higher spiritual part of her being incarnates into her word structures.

The higher concepts are knowable because they already reside in the familiar concepts. Here they are generally hidden and mixed with other concepts. The poet unveils their purified essence and by doing so guides the reader into a vision of the spiritual world.

Door Imagery

Plath doesn't explicitly mention a door but the" far fields" at the poem's end " threaten" to "let her through" to heaven. The "door" is a place that the poet approaches and faces as she experiences a change of consciousness. Plath's contemplation of nature leads to a state where her emotions combine with her perceptions. Ultimately her thinking is transformed and her consciousness begins to expand. Plath is not a "thief or a robber" who takes shortcuts to higher vision. Compare her experience to the metaphorical structure of Christ words in John 10:

1 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. 4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. 5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers." 6 This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.-John 10: 1 - 42

The words "climbeth up" indicates that the sheepfold is part of the spiritual world. Plath goes through the door and so encounters the "porter" or the "Guardian of the Threshold". She cannot turn away from the demons that torment her. Encountering the Guardian requires an extreme examination of self. The higher ego cannot develop without self knowledge. Her vision of "heaven" must initially be a vision of her own inner being. When Plath walks through this door she literally turns inside out as her inner world- her thinking, feeling, and willing-becomes her outer world.

The sheep are part of the poet's inner being. Our day light consciousness hides inner forces. These forces are in potentia and protected from the harshness of the outer world. They are "unfallen" and remain in a state of innocence. When our "I" or ego is able to pass through our own inner door it may "call" these forces and set them into creative motion. The guardian of our consciousness protects these innocent, creative forces from being misused by the unintegrated lower impulses. Protected from "thieves and robbers", these forces wait for their unfolding as the future creativity of humans. The sheep are not simply individuals or else Christ would not say,

" All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them."

Humans have been the prey of false prophets and hence the prey of theives and robbers. So the metaphor points to the inner protected forces of innocent creative potential within each human. The individuated human "I", developed to where it is no longer controlled by an overriding higher social force, may then embark on an initiation of perfecting and gaining freedom. The individual ego merges with the Christ ego:

7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

The "sheep" may be enlivened by the perfection of our individuality. Forces that usurp egohood will kill and destroy our latent creative potential. Only our higher being gives life and does not " disappoint" the sheep. Once our highest potential is reached, it is then sacrificed as its life force is poured into the future development of humanity:

11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. 17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Christ's statement of radical individuality naturally evokes antipathy from the waning Group Soul tendencies. That the power perceived as "outside", the Jehovah creator, could be potentially within every individual confounded the moral and intellectual norm of society. Only those who could merge with the Christ-"I" and break from the societal norm could begin to absorb humanity's transformation:

19 There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. 20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him? 21 Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?22 And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. 23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. 24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. 25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. 26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and my Father are one. 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? 33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. 34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? 35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; 36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? 37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

39 Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand, 40 And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized; and there he abode. 41 And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true. 42 And many believed on him there.

Interestly, this passage is followed by John 11 which contains the raising of Lazarus.

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FOOTNOTES:
1From The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath. HarperPerennial Edition. Page 262.

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