This 3rd Grader's Poem Has Everyone Believing She's The Next Sylvia Plath
By Dave Basner
June 16, 2019
When most of us were in 3rd grade, we were just learning how to read books without a picture on every page, but one 8-year-old is writing poems more advanced than anything most adults can put together.
The girl's teacher posted the piece, explaining that the student wrote it during recess one day, without any prompt, just letting it flow out of her.
It reads:
The True Feminine
I am not sugar and spice and everything nice. I am music, I am art. I am a story. I am a church bell, gonging out wrongs and rights and normal nights. I was baby. I am child. I will be mother. I don’t mind being considered beautiful, I do not allow that to be my definition. I am a rich pie strong with knowledge. I will not be eaten.
Twitter is having the same reaction as you.
apparently a 3rd grader wrote this. go off, gen z sylvia plath pic.twitter.com/rJqqiYl5G2
— rich pie (@arabellesicardi) October 2, 2017
Welp, there's no need for me to write anything ever again.
— McBroOoOoOomifer 👻 (@mcbroomifer) October 3, 2017
Tiny or not, still genius
— Michael Jude (@9MichaelJude) October 4, 2017
"I am a rich pie strong with knowledge. I will not be eaten." And it was by these words that we came to know the woman who would lead us
— Paul Minda (@PaulMinda1) October 3, 2017
me texting all my femme friends: say it. say it with me. say you're a rich pie strong with knowledge.
— rich pie (@arabellesicardi) October 3, 2017
I call fake. A third grader would not think of themselves as "child", nor will have the perspective to arc to motherhood. I say mum wrote it
— Vered Zimmerman (@vered_zimmerman) October 3, 2017
Written by 3rd Grader or not, as if that matters, I’m with the author. They have a point.
— Stonejaw Myers (@strongjaw_s) October 3, 2017
God dammit Picasso was right. You can spend your whole life learning to create art and still not have the mastery of a child.
— Gideon Reece (@Gid_Rhys) October 3, 2017
It turns out, kids can be pretty good at poetry:
children are the best poets https://t.co/vsQ6cKTORg
— Ａ．Ｖ． (@adrivat) October 3, 2017
No word yet on who the 3rd grader is, but if an 8-year-old truly did write it, we'll probably be seeing more from her in the years to come.