found in the poetry of sylvia
plath & ted
hughes
The chairs have surrendered.
every woman adores a Fascist
helpless, German tongue.
a creak stands on the landing,
looking down
my hands
my knees : soon,
soon the flesh
peel off the featureless, fine
Jew linen.
Nightly, stasis in darkness
this feminine agony
bright as a Nazi lampshade
lost among glittering traffic
my limbs have left.
Darkness melts to a shriek
as a floor presses its face
into the earth.
Ted Hughes, Britain’s Poet Laureate at the time of his estranged wife’s suicide. Hughes’ spouse, Sylvia Plath, was a highly regarded American confessional poet who killed herself at age 30. Hughes last work, Birthday Letters (1998), explored his complex relationship with Plath.
April 23, 2017
