Hughes/Plath
Malcolm Lawrence (malcolm@wolfenet.com)
Sun, 18 Jan 1998 14:08:39 -0800
I just found this on the CNN website
Poet Ted Hughes tells of life
with Sylvia Plath
January 17, 1998
Web posted at: 3:26 p.m. EDT (1526 GMT)
LONDON (AP) -- Britain's poet
laureate Ted Hughes is publishing
a poetic account of his relationship
with American poet Sylvia Plath,
35 years after his former wife
committed suicide.
Hughes rarely has spoken about
Plath, and is blamed by some of
her admirers for her death.
The Times published excerpts Saturday from
"Birthday Letters," a
collection of 88 poems, saying the book gives his
side of the
relationship.
Hughes and Plath married in 1956 after meeting at
Cambridge,
where she was studying on a Fulbright Scholarship.
They went to
the United States in 1957 where she taught at
Smith College and
he taught at the University of Massachusetts. They
returned to
England in 1959, continued to write and publish
poetry, and had
two children.
In October 1962, Hughes left Plath, who killed
herself February
11, 1963, at age 30. She had had a history of
mental problems
and had first attempted suicide three years before
meeting Hughes.
Some Plath fans have gone so far as to describe
Hughes as a
murderer. His name has been hacked off of Plath's
gravestone in
Yorkshire.
Poet Andrew Motion, writing in The Times, said
reading the book
"is like being hit by a thunderbolt."
"Anyone who thought Hughes's reticence was proof
of his hard
heart will immediately see how stony they have
been themselves,"
Motion says.
"Hughes is one of the most important poets of the
century, and this
is his greatest book," wrote Motion. "It closes in
a heart of
darkness, a black hole of grief and regret" we
stare into it feeling
changed and enriched."
The three poems printed Saturday -- "Fulbright
Scholars," "St.
Botolph's" and "18 Rugby Street" -- deal with the
earliest days of
their relationship. The newspaper said it would
publish more of the
poetry next week.
The book will be published by Faber and Faber on
January 29.
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten, or
redistributed.