Another poem not from my anthology, sorry Mat!! Reading this chapter made me instantly think of this poem because it was written six days before Plath's death and is considered by many scholars as her version of a suicide note, since Plath never left any formal letter. In this chapter, Hirschfeld muses over how "thought and knowledge can be preserved over time" through poetry (p. 179). Plath is highly regarded as one of the best Western poets of the 20th century, and her poems are certainly used as a vessel for remembering her & her life. It is almost ironic, because her poems are now so well known they are viewed by some as cliche or melodramatic. Edge is a perfect example of this, as critics scramble to understand this poem as her way of saying goodbye. The "dead child[ren]" are believed to be symbolic of Plath's own kids, and the dejected, melancholic tone concretely reflects the despair that drove her to suicide. While the poem is certainly is indicative of someone in a deeply vulnerable and fragile mental state, it is completely impossible to be sure of what Plath meant when she wrote it. Part of Plath's struggle when she was alive was getting her poetry taken seriously because she wrote about her depression. The fact that she is almost solely remembered today as a beautiful, yet trite poet is the ultimate irony behind her legacy. Her poems are a vessel for the knowledge that we use to remember her life, but they are not always an accurate picture.