Poetry by suicidal poets contains
telltale signs of suicidal tendencies, in the form of
linguistic patterns. Researchers in the US applied computer analysis techniques
to poetry by poets who took their own lives, including Sylvia Plath, as well as a control
group of non-suicidal poets, and determined that the suicidal poets used many
more singular first-person references, and fewer words associated with
interpersonal communication, thus suggesting detachment and self-absorption.
Surprisingly, emotional words such as "love" and "hate" did not vary
significantly between the two words.