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"I am, in my deep soul, happiest on the Moors": The Impact of
Dealing with the World Beyond the Shores of the United States in the
Life and Work of Sylvia Plath
Maeve O'Brien, University of Ulster
Sylvia Plath was born and raised in the greater Boston area, Massachusetts. She attended
Smith College, attaining her undergraduate degree in 1955. This was followed by the
securing of a Fulbright Scholarship, allowing her to pursue graduate study at Cambridge
University, England. Plath spent 1955-57 living in Cambridge with spells in Yorkshire, after
her marriage to fellow writer Ted Hughes. An aspiring poet from her girlhood, moving to
England served to foster her commitment to writing.
Plath's connections to the UK and USA make up an important component of her
literary output, with the influences, sights and sounds experienced in the formative years of
1956-57, marking a vitally important time period in her development as a poet and writer.
These cross-Atlantic connections are not only apparent in her early poetry, but resonate
throughout her later work. Plath's literary output is rooted in both English and American
subtleties, examples being references to the England based-company, Tate and Lyle in her
Bee Poems and the identification of significant political and cultural events in America with:
"It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs" from The Bell
Jar (Plath 1). Plath's posthumously published Crossing the Water poetry volume,
documenting time spent in the USA and UK, also adds weight to the assertion that she was a
writer influenced by both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
This paper will argue that by fusing her American upbringing in tandem with
experiences she had in England and embracing culture other than that of the United States,
Sylvia Plath reaped positive results. By taking advantage of the cacophony of influence
available to her, Plath was provided a broad canvas on which to experiment and write,
advancing her development as a poet. Using various journal entries and letter
correspondences, it will be firstly determined how Plath personally dealt with the world
outside of the shores of the United States during her stay in England. By using Plath's
personal opinions in her journals and poetry as a backdrop, this paper will explore the many
factors that have helped change and shape her poetic style as a result of living in England.
Her education at Cambridge, as well as influence by Ted Hughes, will be considered; as will
Plath Profiles
21
the impact of Yorkshire, with its wild and differing landscapes, the omnipresent shadows of
the Brontë sisters and pervasive gothic moors.
On arriving in England in the autumn of 1955, Plath was immediately enamoured.
She felt that her arrival in England was a homecoming of sorts, and her letters, which
document immediately and enthusiastically Plath's first impressions of England, were littered
with the desire to become indigenous to the country. She wrote to her mother and
benefactress Olive Higgins Prouty in Letters Home declaring her wish to establish herself as a
native Englishperson – with roots firmly ingrained in Cambridge: "my first poem published
here officially will make me feel honestly a literary citizen" and "at last I am beginning to
feel a native of Cambridge" (185, 193). These quotes cement Plath's desire to shed her
American native status for the new and exciting England. However, cracks in this initial
infatuation soon emerge as evidenced with a letter to her mother in October 1955: "I'll tell
you a few details that struck me as unique at first. Our rooms are cool enough to keep butter
and milk in (!) and I can see why there are so few iceboxes here. Imagine, in the morning
when I get up to wash in the bathroom, my breath hangs white in the air in frosty clouds!"
(187). Throughout the years she spent in England, Plath would find it difficult to understand
what she perceived as England's technological backwardness. As late as 1963, this topic still
provided a source of inspiration and occasional amusement for Plath, with her wry short story
"Snow Blitz," lamenting the struggles of the English in a debilitating winter.
As she settled into life at Cambridge, Plath's opinions and allegiances towards
England and America found a happy medium. She took from each nation what she required –
enjoying the education and new experiences provided for her by Cambridge and England, but
she also kept her American background close to her heart. Another letter to her mother
describing the intellectual challenges at Cambridge illustrates this balancing-act: "The kind of
reading… is exactly what I wanted to come here to do, but it is still often difficult, in the face
of some of these glib girls… Occasionally, I would just like to catch them off guard with our
early American literature!" (195). At Cambridge, Plath experienced a significant shift in
terms of educational focus. Her previous education at Smith College entailed studies
embedded in contemporary texts. Her English Literature classes focused on modern writers,
modern American literature, and the cultural and artistic movements that inspired them. Prior
to Cambridge, Plath felt her favourite writers to range from Mark Twain to W.B. Yeats and
she was attracted to the modern, surreal and expressionist paintings of Paul Klee and
sculpture of Georgio DeChirico and Hugo Robus. These modern influences reflected Plath's
personal artistic and literary endeavours, with juvenilia poems inspired by Robus ("Three
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22
Caryatids without a Portico") and girlhood artwork reflecting her artistic tastes.1 At
Cambridge, however, academic focus was vastly different to her previous education. Plath
enrolled in "Tragedy," "English Moralists," and "History of Literary Theory" classes and
noted that she was encountering "huge hunks of literature I've never seen before" and further
commented on the different interpretations of genre between the two sides of the Atlantic; at
Cambridge, the definition of modern writers was drastically different to the American
interpretation of the word (186). Plath commented that "'modern' poets are considered to be
Wordsworth, Arnold and Coleridge," illustrating the difference in perception between the two
sides of the Atlantic (186).
The education Plath received at Cambridge served to widen her knowledge of
literature and in turn, widened the scope of inspiration for her poetic output. "Pursuit,"
written in 1956, illustrates how the shift to a more classical style of education influenced her
poetry. "Pursuit" is a lyric poem and relies on repetition and alliteration in order to maintain
its rhythm. Plath admitted in her Letters Home, that she had been influenced by metaphysical
poetry in writing her poem: evident in the intense, sensual vocabulary of the piece, as well as
the overarching theme of an individual's futile attempts to fight overwhelming passion. The
poem describes a speaker being chased by a relentless, stalking, aggressive panther and is
filled with images of violent masculinity. The speaker is afraid of but also attracted to the
panther, and the inevitability of succumbing to its chase is predestined because of the
speaker's attraction to the animal:
Appalled by secret want, I rush
From such assault of radiance.
Entering the tower of my fears,
I shut my doors on that dark guilt,
I bolt the door, each door I bolt.
Blood quickens, gonging in my ears:
The panther's tread is on the stairs,
Coming up and up the stairs. (Plath, Collected Poems 23)
The prowling panther is relentless in "Pursuit." The speaker tries to run, bolt doors, but the
panther pursues unflinchingly. Plath prefaces this poem with a quote – "Dans le fond des
forêts votre image me suit" from Racine's Phédre, which was a text she studied for her class
1
Colour Plates 11, 14, 25, 32, 33, 34 from Eye Rhymes: Sylvia Plath's Art of the Visual show the girlhood
artwork Plath created while living in America. In viewing these pieces of art, the influence of modern, surreal
and expressionist painters is evident as Plath mimics the same artistic styles.
Plath Profiles
23
in Cambridge.2 Choosing this particular quote shows how Plath allowed the new literature
she was reading as a result of studying in a place other than the United States, changed on her
poetry. Interestingly, further investigation of her Letters Home, which details the composition
of "Pursuit," shows again the emerging equilibrium Plath had in relation to drawing
inspiration from both the land outside the United States as well as America itself. She writes
to her mother: "another epigraph could have been from my beloved Yeats – 'whatever flames
upon the night, man's own resinous heart has fed' – the painter's brush consumes his dreams,
and all that" (223). Plath's concession that "Pursuit" could have been prefaced by a foreword
influenced by either her American or English educational background proves the point that
she allowed any aspect of any experience from either side of the Atlantic to impact on her
work. Plath was open and receptive to all influences.
The physical, masculine descriptions that drives "Pursuit" signifies another major
influence on Plath and impact on her poetry: "Now hills hatch menace, spawning shade; /
Midnight cloaks the sultry grove; / The black marauder, hauled by love / On fluent haunches,
keeps my speed" (22, 23). So famously described, the "black marauder" was Plath's soon-tobe husband, Ted Hughes. Hughes provided an enormous source of inspiration to Plath's
poetry. He introduced her to different landscapes, literary perspectives and together, they had
an intense working and personal relationship. Hughes worked on and made edits to his first
poetry collection while living with Plath and she proved essential in garnering publisher
attention for The Hawk in the Rain, which was published in 1957 to widespread acclaim.
There are many parallels between the content of Plath and Hughes's work. Hughes
was instrumental in introducing Plath to the English countryside, animals unique to England
and traditional English countryside colloquialisms. These new English influences proved to
be inspiring for Plath as a result the thematic focus in her work began to change. Plath's
poems evolved from juvenilia discussions of love, laments, princesses and moons to material
of a more nature-driven quality as shown in "Ode for Ted," where Plath writes of brambles,
stoats, fields and English landscapes. Further evidence of their shared influence is seen in
terms of poetic subject-matter. Hughes wrote "Soliloquy of a Misanthrope" prior to meeting
Plath but in her "Soliloquy of the Solipsist," she takes influence from Hughes's title.
"Soliloquy of the Solipsist" however, has progressed in terms of influence from the earthy
"Ode for Ted" which is imbued solely by her English experiences. Plath again begins to
maintain a sense of equilibrium between her new English influence from Hughes and her
2
Translated as "In the heart of the forest, your image follows me."
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American background. Although inspiration has been taken from Hughes in terms of subject
matter, Plath infuses her poems with themes she carried in her poetry from her American
girlhood: images of moons and colour litter the poem, and her trademark stark declarations:
"it's quite clear / All your beauty, all your wit, is a gift, my dear, / From me" allow "Soliloquy
of the Solipsist" to bear the influence of her English and American conditioning (35-36).
Plath and Hughes married in June 1956 and spent some weeks at Hughes' family
home at the Beacon in Heptonstall Slack, Yorkshire prior to the Cambridge term beginning in
autumn. Plath was enthralled by the foreign landscapes and especially connected to the
village of Haworth, where the Brontë sisters lived and wrote. Plath wrote in her Journals of
her experience in visiting the Brontë home: "Charlotte's bridal crown of heirloom lace and
honeysuckle, Emily's death couch, the small, luminous books and watercolours, the beaded
napkin ring, the apostle cupboard. They touched this, wore that, wrote here in a house
redolent with ghosts" (Plath 589). The literary pilgrimage to the Brontë home further
established Plath's sense of place as a female writer; as it allowed her to visualise and
celebrate what Gilbert and Gubar interpret as the achievements of the foremother (211).3
Spending time on the moors, with their wild, strange landscapes also proved to be a major
source of inspiration for Plath as it improved and expanded her ability to portray landscapes.
"November Graveyard,"4 written in 1956, starkly describes a lonely graveyard amid the
backdrop of a ghostly and unforgiving moor. The graveyard Plath describes in this poem is
situated in Heptonstall, Yorkshire and the imagery conjured in this poem is unlike any other
in her previous work. The barren landscapes, deserted but for lost ghosts, howls and
barrenness accurately depict the distinctive terrain that comprises Yorkshire, and illustrates
how exploring such environments allowed Plath to establish new terms and vocabulary in her
work and develop her descriptive skills.
Whatever lost ghosts flare,
Damned, howling in their shrouds across the moor
Rave on the leash of the starving mind
Which peoples the bare room, the blank, untenanted air. (56)
Plath's descriptions not only vividly describe the English countryside and landscapes that
3
Gilbert and Gubar comment on Emily Dickinson's celebration of the achievements of Charlotte Brontë. I
believe the same can be said of Plath's visit to Haworth. The spiritual connection Plath felt with the Brontë
sisters is apparent in reading Journal entries, and I believe such a connection fostered Plath's ability to see
herself as a female writer.
4
This poem was originally titled “November Graveyard, Haworth.”
Plath Profiles
25
were new to her; by connecting historical elements like ghosts and a lack of humanity in
order to drive home the barren descriptions, Plath echoes traditional English landscape
poetry, where the landscapes are defined by their reflection of humanity: "No dead man's
cries / Flower forget-me-nots between the stones / Paving this grave ground" (56).
The pattern of Plath's equilibrium between living in England and her engrained
American upbringing manifests itself again in the poem "Black Rook in Rainy Weather."
This piece is set in Yorkshire and infused with the same kind of landscapes as "November
Graveyard," with stark trees and a "ruinous landscape" (24). The title bears the imprint of
English influence as rooks are not found in North America. However, "Black Rook in Rainy
Weather" is also rooted in Plath's American upbringing which was imbued with the ideals of
Emerson.5 Plath's speaker converses candidly about her relationship to a God figure, relying
on intuition and perception of spirituality to guide the poem where ultimately, the questioning
of nature reveals spiritual truth. Tim Kendall commented that "Black Rook in Rainy
Weather" is almost a "Transcendentalist manifesto," illustrating Plath's deep connection to
the Emersonian ideals she had come to believe in while living in America (26). The
successful translation of American philosophy to the backdrop of English landscapes in
"Black Rook in Rainy Weather" illustrates the uniqueness of Plath's work, and proves her
ability to create successful poetry reflecting the benefits of cross-Atlantic interaction.
Sylvia Plath's literary output was dramatically influenced by dealing with the world
outside of the United States. In her essay "Your Puddle-Jumping Daughter," Tracy Brain
commented that "if Plath had never lived in England, she would have been a very different
writer, and probably not such a good one" (46). Brain believed that the new culture Plath
experienced allowed Plath a broader spectrum of inspiration than she would have arguably
received in the United States. Living in England and interacting with different cultures
challenged Plath and gave her the opportunity to fuse together new English discoveries with
her American upbringing and allowed her poetry to represent many different influences,
interpretations, vocabulary and narratives that would have not been possible without
interacting with the world outside of the United States. Between the years 1955-57, Plath's
poetry developed significantly, and the new inspiration she received from Cambridge, Ted
5
"Nature," written in 1836 puts forth the argument that American landscapes can be described in a new way,
rather than influenced by English cultural heritage where humanity and landscapes are intrinsically connected.
Emerson believed that to appreciate nature, it must be allowed to take over the senses. He further believed
nature was linked with experiencing the presence of God. In "Black Rook in Rainy Weather" Plath maintains
this link, musing about nature and God and the connections they have to each other.
Further important essays written by Emerson espousing the ideals that influenced Plath are titled
"Experience" and "The Poet," from Essays: Second Series.
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Hughes and the unusual landscapes experienced, provided a strong grounding in poetic
technique which was necessary in order for Plath to progress as a writer. In the summer of
1957, Plath returned to the United States, and although happy to be home, close to family,
with the opportunity to show off her homeland to Hughes, she still kept up her love and
appreciation for England. Living in Northampton, Massachusetts in March 1958, she declared
in her Journals that she was happiest of all, on the moors. This indicates that Plath was
comfortable maintaining a balance between the love for her homeland as well as a love for
the shores beyond it. Plath's cross-Atlantic interaction did not just benefit her own literary
output because by beginning a dialogue between the UK and USA, Plath was able to help
change the perception of what it was to be an American poet.
In 1769, trying to establish what the new land of America should be and how the
people who inhabited it should act: St. John De Crevecoeur wrote, "The American is a new
man, who acts upon new principles: he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new
opinions" (Baym 660). Plath subverted this ideal by entertaining new ideas and forming new
opinions not just from America itself but from the surrounding world. By doing so, she
helped widen the scope of discussion for American literature and placed herself as a midAtlantic writer, taking from each side of the ocean what inspiration she required in order to
positively impact upon and advance her own poetic endeavours.
Plath Profiles
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Works Cited
Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature to 1820. New York: Norton and
Company, 2003. Print.
Brain, Tracy. The Other Sylvia Plath. London: Longman, 2001. Print.
Connors, Kathleen and Sally Bayley. Eye Rhymes: Sylvia Plath's Art of the Visual. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2007. Print.
Crase, Douglas. Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson: First and Second Series. New York: Library
of America, 2010. Print.
Gilbert, Sandra M and Susan Gubar. No Man's Land, Volume 1. New Haven and London: Yale
University Press, 1988. Print.
Hughes, Ted. Hawk in the Rain. London: Faber and Faber, 1972. Print.
Kendall, Tim. Sylvia Plath: A Critical Study. London: Faber and Faber, 2001. Print.
Plath Sylvia. The Bell Jar. London: Faber and Faber, 2001. Print.
---. Collected Poems. London Faber and Faber, 1990. Print.
---. The Journals of Sylvia Plath. Ed. Karen V. Kukil. London: Faber and Faber, 2001.Print.
---. Letters Home: Correspondence 1950-1963. Ed. Aurelia S. Plath. New York: Harper
Perennial, 1992. Print.
This paper was greatly informed by Sylvia Plath's online library, compiled by Peter K. Steinberg
and located at: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/SylviaPlathLibrary