A Final Look at Plath and Hughes

The title of the blog post is a little misleading, I think: I'm not quite done with these poets. But it's my last blog post, I've submitted the paper, and finished my presentation- the class is finished.  And compared to my "First Impressions" post on the two of them, my opinions of the two have definitely changed.

I've noticed that a lot of people in the class have taken a side in the Plath/Hughes debate- and I guess it's easy to, one way or another. They're both extremely relatable poets, whether it's Plath's confessionalism or Hughes's poorly-suppressed rage. For me, it's a little less extreme- I like them both. But there are a few things that push me a little closer to Hughes.

Crow is the biggest factor. Those poems were impressive- like, that they made an impression. I still stand by the claim that I made in the First Impressions post about Hughes- he writes these poems that make you feel something, but doesn't care to really help you decide what it is that he's making you feel. I end up feeling angry or anxious or just plain uncomfortable after reading his Crow poems, with no reason to really put a finger on- and I really admire that in his work.

And then there's the whole thing in Plath's writing that sets me on edge- namely, when she just sort of slips in those extremely racist remarks in otherwise really great poetry. I know the argument 'it was just how it was back then' could be used, but I really cannot get past reading her negative descriptions of herself she sometimes does by comparing herself to other races. There's that, and there's the Holocaust imagery that she uses (that I talked about in another blog post) that just makes me uncomfortable when I read them.

I'm not done reading her, though. I actually ended up buying Ariel halfway through the semester because I wanted the experience of reading those poems in order, the right way. And I'm definitely not done with Hughes- I need to be able to put my finger on what it is that the Crow makes me feel.