“Alicante Lullaby”: Holiday at Holiday
Over her infamous Mademoiselle summer, in her single years, and later with Hughes, Plath made occasional trips to New York City night clubs, and certainly knew of, if not attended, the famous Copacabana night club. While Hughes and Plath were on their Spanish honeymoon, the most popular act in America in the 1950s, Dean Martin […]
“Miss Drake Proceeds to Supper”: Discovery in the Insect World
According to her pocket calendar, Sylvia Plath wrote “Miss Drake Proceeds to Supper” on June 19, 1956, in the sun by the River Seine in Paris, France. This was three days after she and Ted Hughes were married. Just before their wedding day, Hughes had suggested that Plath should “read not novels or poems only, […]
“Song for a Summer’s Day”: Sassoon and Sawdust
Plath finished “Song for a Summer’s Day” on April 20, 1956 per her pocket calendar, where it is referred to as “Through Fern & Farm and Walking.” It was first titled “Song” in an early, darker version published in Letters Home, which she mailed to her mother on April 21, 1956 (LH, 238-239). There are […]
“Ode for Ted”: A Devilish Disguise
Pan statue at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, France The poem “Ode for Ted” was originally entitled “Poem for Pan,” for the Ancient Greek god of nature and the wild mountains. According to her pocket calendar, Plath began this poem on April 20 and finished it on April 21, 1956. Pan, of course, is the […]
“Faun”: Hoo Are You?
Pictured: The flag of the People’s Republic of China, adopted 1949 Plath’s poem “Faun” was first called “Metamorphosis,” and is found under this title in Letters Home (LH, 234). Her pocket calendar entry dated April 18, 1956 reads, “wrote poem re: Ted = Pan.” In her journals, Plath also referenced this same poem as “Faunus” […]
“Pursuit”: The Black Marauder of Imperialist France
Political cartoon illustrating France’s imperial lust Most assume that Plath wrote the predatory poem “Pursuit” for Ted Hughes. In her journals, Plath privately acknowledged that this poem is about “the dark forces of lust.” She hardly consoled her mother in a letter too, writing that it represented “the terrible beauty of death,” and the paradox […]
What We Don’t Know
A reader saw Dr. Ann Skea’s 2012 posts about my first book, Fixed Stars Govern a Life: Decoding Sylvia Plath work and asked me some questions. I started to respond, and then decided to answer her here, to share with everyone, five years after the fact: Earlier in that year, Dr. Skea emailed me, letting me […]