History and a Case for Prescience: Introduction on Short Studies of Sylvia Plath’s 1956 Poems
[An earlier version of this essay was first published in Plath Profiles, Volume 7, 2014 with analyses of the 1956 poems by Sylvia Plath] “[Y]ou
Welcome to my page on Decoding Sylvia Plath’s early poems. I have done a lot of work over the past decade and a half on Plath’s poetry. Plath’s early poems are often ignored as her training ground in finding her voice. Here, I’ll show you how Sylvia Plath’s early work has great value–and mystery. In my first book, Fixed Stars Govern a Life: Decoding Sylvia Plath, (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2014), and subsequent Decoding Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” and Decoding Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” (both Magi Press, 2017), I reveal new interpretations and multi-layered dimensions of Plath’s poetry through the use of the tarot and Qabalah. It was only natural that I should go back to explore Plath’s early work and see if she had done the same in The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath, especially those written before her mystical masterpiece, Ariel. Below, have fun exploring how Sylvia Plath incorporated news stories, celebrity gossip, and art into her early works. Maybe most exciting is how many of these poems are documents of her prescience.
“I want to write at least ten good news poems….” Sylvia Plath in a letter to her mother, Monday, 25 April 1955
Bibliography:
UJ – The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, edited by Karen V. Kukil (c) 2000, Anchor Books
CP – The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath, edited by Ted Hughes, (c) 1981 HarperPerennial
LSP: Vol. 1 – The Letters of Sylvia Plath Volume I: 1940-1956 edited by Peter K. Steinberg and Karen V. Kukil (c) 2017, Faber and Faber
LSP: Vol. 2 – The Letters of Sylvia Plath Volume II: 1956-1963 edited by Peter K. Steinberg and Karen V. Kukil (c) 2017 Faber and Faber
RC – Red Comet The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark (c) 2020 Alfred A. Knopf
[An earlier version of this essay was first published in Plath Profiles, Volume 7, 2014 with analyses of the 1956 poems by Sylvia Plath] “[Y]ou
Ted Hughes positioned “Spider” as a 1956 poem, but the evidence suggests it may have been written in 1958. In the poem, Plath references the
Of all the work in the 1956 section of The Collected Poems, “Maudlin” may be the one closest to Plath’s autobiography. However, this poem was
Revisions to Plath’s poem “Crystal Gazer” were discussed in Hughes’ October 1956 letters, but Plath’s calendar notes reveal that she wrote 24 lines (probably the
Plath wrote “Ella Mason and Her Eleven Cats” on June 2, 1956, per her pocket calendar. Plath spoke a bit of French, and the very
“The Beggars” is one of Plath’s poems seemingly set in Benidorm, Spain. If Plath had been reading the newspapers from home, which Aurelia might have