Plath & Hughes: Context

18th & 19th Centuries

Focuses on the natural world & finds the sublime in nature.

Strives for freedom from wider society and frequently follows the “solitary genius” trope.

Romantic poetry follows a set of poetic rules e.g. metre, rhythm, and rhyme(ish).

Pioneered by writers such as William Blake, by which both Plath and Hughes were inspired.

20th Century

Serves as a reflection of the modern world: Modernism is non-traditional and experimental and so the poems often explore the boundaries of poetry by breaking traditional rules e.g. through the stream-of-consciousness technique.

Pioneered by works such as James Joyce’s Ulysses.

The 20th Century was one of huge cultural and political upheaval; urbanisation was immense, agnosticism and atheism became normal, massive waves of technological development emerged, multiple political revolutions happened e.g. waves of feminism, and WW1 upheaved society.

1950s

Coined in 1954 by J.D. Scott.

Defined good poetry as ones that used simple & sensuous content and traditional & conventional forms. Their poems contrasted the Modernism movement as they were nostalgic for an older England filled with images of decaying rurality.

Poetry of The Movement movement attempts to remain dignified even when confronting strong subjects; both Plath and Hughes flout this by using direct and provocative language.

1950s—1960s

This genre focuses on the experiences of characters that cannot find any purpose in life and often question existentialist concepts such as truth or value. Common elements include satire, dark humour, incongruity, the abasement of reason, and controversy.

This first predominantly spread in France and Germany, sparked by post-war disillusionment.

Late 1950s—Early 1960s

A form of Postmodernism that emerged in the US, focusing on extreme moments of individual experiences, the psyche, and personal trauma. Confessional poetry often indulges in taboo topics and often sets this in relation to broader social themes.

This is said by critics to have been inspired by events such as the Holocaust introducing existential threat, as well as a reaction against the idealisation of domesticity in the 1950s by unearthing unhappiness in their homes.

This movement was pioneered by names such as Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell. Plath once took a poetry course in NY in which she was taught by Lowell alongside Sexton, who she was known to be friendly with.

1963 at 30 years old to suicide

Here she was 20 years old and attempted suicide after which she was hospitalised and received electro-shock therapy

Published by Hughes and Plath’s mother (Aurelia) posthumously, shows letters between Plath and family revealing intimate details such as tensions with her mother, her marriage, and being a mother herself.

It was the only collection published during her lifetime.

When Sylvia couldn’t sleep, Hughes gave her the prompt of writing about what she saw outside her window; St Peter’s Church, a graveyard, and a yew tree. Hughes said the result “greatly depressed” him.

• Emily Bronte’s Victorian novel about a toxic relationship in which Heathcliff emotionally abuses his wife; set on the Yorkshire moors

• Plath wrote this poem while Hughes and herself were living in Hughes’ parents’ house as newlyweds, on the same moors

• Hughes grew up in rural Yorkshire and hunted animals in his youth, influenced by his older brother’s interests

• Hughes’ father fought in WWII

Served in the RAF before attending Cambridge

• Studied archaeology and anthropology, specialising in myths and legends

• Hughes didn’t write anything for a year, before TTF

• A bloodied fox appeared to Hughes in a dream, places its paw on his essay and told him to stop ‘destroying us’; this inspired Hughes to change his university course

1984

After Plath’s suicide (although he didn’t write anything for 3 years)

Hughes’ regrets surrounding his and Plath’s relationship — before which he refused to comment on the matter

She quotes Betty Friedan who suggests that after WWII ideas surrounding women returned to Victorian ideology — i.e., women should be innocent and submissive & are defined by their capacity to procreate.
She says this explains why Plath feels estranged from her role as a mother in “Morning Song”.

The title is taken from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in which the wodwo is described as a troll/satyr of the forest.

Shamans have the ability to contact the divine world & to help heal human reconciliation with it. Hughes says the animals live “a divine life in a divine world” and said to Ekbert Faas “all true poets are Shamans.”

Hughes appears to upheave his entire ideology while Plath seems stagnant — this is because all of her work except for The Colossus was published posthumously and therefore only written in a short span of her life.

1957

• The Thought-Fox

• Wind

1960

• Hawk Roosting

• View of a Pig

1967

• Wodwo

• Full Moon and Little Frieda

1970

• Examination at the Womb-Door

1960

• Medallion

1965

• Morning Song

• The Moon and the Yew Tree

• Daddy

• Death & Co.

1971

• Wuthering Heights

• Mirror

Plath often uses elements of nature in a literal presentational sense while Hughes is more symbolic