Plath Profiles Plath and Place
Essays, Poems, and Artwork
Plath Profiles vol. 10 124
‘I Had Never Felt So Native To A Country’: A Portrayal Of Sylvia Plath As A Tourist Poet In Spain1 by Melody Sanchez Camacho
“… the memory of this Spanish summer turns in our mind with a blaze of color and light like an inward sun, to warm us through the long winter” (UJ 264).
1 A first version of this paper was presented at the XXVIII Symposium of the College of Liberal Arts of the University of Central Oklahoma on March 30, 2016.
Plath Profiles vol. 10 125
Introduction Wagner-Martin just mentions it in her biography (1987); Nancy D. Hargrove The works of Sylvia Plath have received also analyzes several aspects of Plath’s considerable attention by both the poetry concerning this period in her critics and the readers, especially since suggestion of a new chronology of the the moment of her death in 1963. Much poems (1992); also, Julia Gordon- have been said about her poetry, fiction Bramer attempts a challenging new and non-fiction, all of which have reading of these poems, focusing on equally received the attention of those the not so obvious layers of signification interested in unveiling the mysteries that may be found (2014); Lynda K. underlying the mechanisms of such a Bundtzen addresses Plath’s non-fiction delicate artistic conscience. Her only and Ted Hughes’ poetry to further novel, The Bell Jar (1963) still arouses all explore the role of food in her literary kinds of reactions collected in numerous production (2010); lastly, Erica Wagner studies; her non-fiction is thoroughly interestingly addresses the matter in her examined trying to trace back study of Ted Hughes’ Birthday Letters reminiscences in the fiction texts; and (2000). Despite these examples of her poetry does not stop gaining weight studies upon Sylvia Plath in Spain, I find, every day. However, there is a particular however, that very little attention has moment in the life of Sylvia Plath that been paid to the period itself and the has been unjustly overlooked: her particulars of this far from negligible honeymoon in the summer of 1956. experience. In actual fact, Plath and Hughes’ sojourn in Spain was worth, in Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes married Plath’s opinion, more than a few poems. June 16, 1956 in London. After that, they met Plath’s mother and brother in On the other hand, Pasqual Almiñana that same city, then visited Paris, and Orozco did account for Plath’s stay at finally the couple left for Spain. The Benidorm in an interesting essay (2011), newlyweds arrived in Madrid, the capital but was more concerned with tracing of Spain, and immediately left for back the geographic steps Plath took Benidorm, a coastal town in the region than analyzing the works themselves. of Valencia. They spent part of July and Also, the edition of the journals he the month of August there, and in consulted is the first and current September they went back to England Spanish translation, corresponding to to visit Ted Hughes’ family in Yorkshire. the abridged The Journals of Sylvia Plath (1982). Although he assesses the Some scholars have addressed this existence of an unabridged edition, the topic briefly. On the one hand, Linda one elaborated by Karen V. Kukil in
Plath Profiles vol. 10 126
(2002), since it is not translated into about the place and decided to visit it Spanish, he bases his study in the for their honeymoon. previous one. Be that as it may, the fact is that Sylvia For all these reasons, I consider it Plath’s stay in Spain was one of the necessary and interesting to take a happiest periods of her life. Plath second and broader look at the matter herself accounted in her journal for this from the original sources and a more “Perfect mental and physical well- literary approach. Therefore, for this being” she was feeling (UJ 249). This paper I intend to draw both readers and situation was possible due to several critics’ attention to some of Plath’s most reasons: above all, she was euphoric remarkable poems in terms of local about her new husband, of whom she color. My ultimate intention is to thought they were little less than a reassess the importance of looking match made in heaven. She thought of closer at this underestimated part of the Hughes as a “male counterpart of poet’s early literary production as myself” (LH 264). Also, she was very compared to her later texts. excited about the possibilities that this new country offered: firstly, a weather 1. Honeymoon in Benidorm that she found utterly pleasant. It possibly reminded her of her How Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes came grandparents’ cottage right next to the up with the idea of visiting Benidorm, it sea on Point Shirley in Winthrop, is hard to know. There are certain Massachusetts, where she spent so relevant connections between them and much time in summer. As Wagner- Spain, particularly as regards Ted Martin notes, baby Plath was very early Hughes. As Yvonne Reddick explains, delighted by the pleasures of sun at the Federico García Lorca is considered one beach. Thus, it is no wonder why the of the most significant poetic influences coastal town of Benidorm haunted her on Hughes’ poetry (2013: 687). Also, senses from the very beginning. She during the 1956 summer, Plath explained to her mother that, as soon as describes, Hughes had been working on they saw the village “like a small, an anthology of Spanish poetry (UJ sparkling dream town, I felt instinctively 259).2 Accordingly, it is more than likely with Ted that this was our place” (LH that it was Hughes who had heard 262). This is probably why Plath did not think of Spain merely as a vacation
2 I will use the following acronyms in the present place. She told her mother that Ted was paper: UJ for The Unabridged Journals; LH for applying for jobs in Madrid (LH 256) the Letters Home; CP for The Completed and he even submitted an application Poems; and BL for Birthday Letters by Ted while in Alicante (UJ 255). At the very Hughes.
Plath Profiles vol. 10 127
least, they had plans to stay longer, tremendously sharp and observant she until the end of September (LH 263), was regardless her detached position, but by the end of August they had that of a short-term tourist. spent all their savings and they had to leave for Hughes’ hometown in Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Yorkshire. This circumstance is her literary production about Spain is accounted for in the poem her treatment of color. In her letter of “Departure.” Moreover, according to July 7 to her mother, she expresses for Wagner-Martin, when Plath and Hughes the first time her enthusiasm for the separated, Plath had been playing with unbelievable colors of the landscape: the thought of moving to either Ireland “the colors we saw from the train or Spain (Wagner-Martin 1987: 225), but window all the way down were brighter eventually moved to London. Finally, than I thought possible … blazing another reason why she especially liked yellow, tan and light-green fields under the place is that it was a gorgeous yet a blue-white sky, green-black pine trees, quiet place to write. A couple of years white adobe houses with orange tile had to pass still for Benidorm to roofs” (LH 261). This fascination become the massive tourist destiny of constitutes a key motif of the Benidorm nowadays. In spite of that, Plath poems. They demonstrate how heavily complained that groups of people Sylvia Plath relied on color, both literally would stop in front of her balcony to and metaphorically. Not only is the watch her type her typewriter (UJ 248), Spanish landscape flooded by vivid but, as Orozco notes, this was not very vibrant colors that allow the reader to likely (2011: 88). Plath and Hughes, just get a fair glimpse of it, but also the like the rest of European tourists that Spanish people and costumes are were spending their summer holidays beautifully characterized, and she was there, equally drew the attention of the perfectly aware of it. She actually told suggestible population of such a her mother about a very interesting secluded town. project, “a local-color article” (LH 263) specially written for the publication that While a tourist, it is undeniable that would later publish it, The Christian Sylvia Plath was, before anything else, a Science Monitor in 1956, alongside writer at heart, and as such, she had a some of her most locally-based special intuition for details. Plath made drawings, one of three sardine boats, a an outstanding job at distilling and reminiscence of Benidorm’s fishing capturing the real essence of the character, and one of the cliff and the Spanish society, and locals would feel houses over the sea from where another blessed to recognize themselves in the view of the town could be perceived. lines of the poet. This shows how
Plath Profiles vol. 10 128
1.1. Benidorm: Spain Yesterday and her mother, her first impression about Today Spain was that it was “utterly agricultural or sheep and bull country” Benidorm is a coastal city located in the (LH 261). In order to understand the province of Alicante, in the Valencian whole picture, it is important to bear in region, in eastern Spain. Its privileged mind that the political regime of Spain location, with beaches facing the in 1956 was a dictatorship headed by Mediterranean Sea and mild weather all general Francisco Franco. Even Plath throughout the year, alongside the accounts for the evident presence of convenient amenities, have made it one the police force: “guardia civil in black of the most renowned destinations in patent-leather helmet & heavy green Europe for the so-called “Sun and uniform biked past” (UJ 254). This Beach” tourism. It receives around five system lasted from 1939 to 1975, and million tourists every year, attracted by prevented Spain from developing its iconic skyline formed by impressive towards a more modern and skyscrapers and numerous hotels on the technological society. During these beachfront, and it counts with a native years, Spain kept an eminently population of 75,000 people all year agricultural culture, mainly in the rural long (Mazón Martínez 2010: 9). This regions surrounding big cities. Plath enormous growth started in 1956, when also described Benidorm’s atmosphere Pedro Zaragoza, the mayor of Benidorm as “a strange mixture of clean, colourful at the time, initiated a challenging land- poverty” (LH 262), because despite the use planning so as to promote the deplorable conditions in which some of urban expansion of the town with the areas were, there was this sort of regard to the business and touristic natural “joyfulness” that was very sectors (2010: 12). appealing to the poet, and in spite of the manifest neediness of Spanish Funnily enough, if the curious reader society, great projects were being set tried to find now the place in which into motion, and thus she says that Plath and Hughes spent their Benidorm, “except for the hotels, is honeymoon, they would feel puzzled. utterly uncommercial”, yet it is obvious Where is the small quiet town where the that little by little it was “being couple found peace to write and discovered by tourists” (LH 262). intermingle with the locals? Until then, contrarily, the Benidorm that they 1.2. Non-Fictional Plath: Letters and visited was little more than a fishing and Journals agricultural village with 1,700 inhabitants in 1950 (Mazón Martínez Apart from the Benidorm poems, the 2010: 11). As Plath wrote in a letter to letters Sylvia Plath sent to her mother
Plath Profiles vol. 10 129
and her own journals are our main relief for having been able to change sources of information. As Aurelia Plath the noisy crowded and full of hotels accurately said, these are “radiant boulevard for “our native quarter” (UJ letters, when love and a complete 247). Completely adapted to the sharing of hope and dreams environment, she describes in the letter acknowledge no limits” (LH 247). As a on July 25 their daily routine: how they matter of fact, just like the poems, the wake up early, and after having “café- letters that Plath sent to her mother and con-leche”, they go to the market to the notes she took in her journals are get fresh fish. After lunch, they go to full of life. She had no time to let herself the beach “for a siesta and swim”, and sink into any kind of breakdown after supper, they “walk through the because everything around her was new moonlit almond groves toward the still and stimulating, and everything was purple mountains” (LH 265). worth capturing for later literary reconsideration. As for the journals, as opposed to the overall tone of these in precious years, As a general rule, the letters always that of a woman who seems to be show an optimistic Sylvia. Enthusiastic unable to be naturally happy, we barely compliments to Hughes are always find during this period any sign of present, as well as descriptions of the negativity in her mood. Also, as one several tasks into which she engaged may guess, Sylvia Plath’s journal is not herself. Another reason to pay special only an outpouring of personal attention to this period is that, as experiences in the traditional sense, but Aurelia Plath acknowledges, Plath was also a piece where to find notes she remarkably productive: “Sylvia took in order to remember those details produced many articles, sketches, and later when she sat to write, and even poems” (LH 247). bits of the fiction she was working on. Here we find the story of Marcia, a The couple did not stay away from the woman on her way to Spain by train, native lifestyle, which they embraced where Sylvia Plath was already applying with pride, to the extent that Plath had her knowledge of the Spanish culture, recognized a few days earlier, on July 7, with Spanish vocabulary and also details that she had “never felt so native to a of the landscape that stroke her during country as I do to Spain” (LH 261). Their the first days. moving to the second apartment after their awful experience at widow One of the first contacts that Plath and Mangada’s cottage, of which we will Hughes had with the locals was, as Plath talk about later, contributed greatly to named her, widow Mangada, a woman this: Plath records in her journal her whose family name was Mangada and
Plath Profiles vol. 10 130
who had an apartment for rent. As The couple felt relieved that they had Mazón Martínez explains, some of the been able to find a better place than inhabitants of Benidorm used to move Widow Mangada’s, for which they paid to the countryside in the summer so more money for a house they had to that they could rent their houses to the share with more people and in which crescent waves of tourists, and thus be the appliances did not work very well. able to inflate their little income (2010: The rent of the second apartment was 12). This is how Sylvia Plath described lower and they did not have to share the classic Spanish apartment: their space with anybody else. This made Plath feel renewed also creatively: Doors consist of a swaying curtain of long beaded strips I also feel a new direct pouring of which rattle apart with the entry energy into my own work, and of each customer and let in the shall break the jinx of my story breeze, but not the sun. In the writing this week, trying the bull- bread-shop, there is always the fight story and perhaps one on smell of fresh loaves … A shining Widow Mangada (funny?) … also array of aluminum pots, pans and an article, with sketches, on cooking utensils hang on the Benidorm for the Monitor. Must wall; one washes dishes and learn Spanish and translate vegetables in large marble French, too. (UJ 249) basins, scrubbing them with little snarled bunches of straw. All The most recurrent topics in her ideas cooking - - fresh sardines fried in about Spain for later literary pieces was oil, potato and onion tortillas, the bull-fight they attended while in cafe con leche … is done on the Madrid, about which she eventually blue flame of an antique petrol wrote the poem “The Goring,” and also burner … vines wove green their awful experience with the widow, leaves in the railing; a palm and a which culminated in the short story pine tree grew alongside shading “Widow Mangada,” published in one side … She [Widow Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams Mangada] had amassed a great (1952). quantity of white china places, cups and saucers in the formal After leaving Benidorm, once diningroom. (UJ 239-41) established back in Cambridge, where Plath was supposed to resume her The moment when Plath really Fulbright program, she explained in a flourished, however, was when they letter to her mother the reason why Ted changed to their second apartment. rejected the idea of getting back to
Plath Profiles vol. 10 131
Spain to work. He was back in London, explicitly referential to Benidorm. among other reasons, because Plath’s According to Gordon-Bramer, the status as a Fulbright grant recipient poems that are most widely included in would not allow her to get married, and this group are: “Southern Sunrise,” she explains that being separated was “Alicante Lullaby,” “Dream with Clam- unbearable to both of them, “SO: Spain Diggers,” “Epitaph for Fire and is out” (LH 281). Flower,” “Fiesta Melons,” “Spider,” “The Goring,” “The Beggars,” 2. Benidorm Poems “Departure” and “The Other Two.” However, she does not mention “The The poetic persona of poems such as Net-Menders,” which is, in my opinion, “Alicante Lullaby” or “Southern one of the few that clearly alludes, with Sunrise” is far from the renowned artist no doubt, to Benidorm, because of its that sought shelter and found her most motif, the old women waiving nets, who brilliant expression in intricate, had a great impact on Plath, as we can disturbing rhetorical figures and suicidal tell from her exhaustive recollections in characters. Contrariwise, what we read her journal. in these pieces is a passionate, powerful voice. Every single occurrence during Another issue regarding this matter is the honeymoon leads to a highly that it is very hard to determine the suggestive and inspirational date in which they were written. On the atmosphere for Plath. As opposed to one hand, Ted Hughes’ main criterion her later creations, the mood of these for rearranging the poems that would poems is light-hearted, and always be published in The Collected Poems of fervently captivating, accompanied by a Sylvia Plath was their theme. lively and bright vocabulary. Despite the Consequently, all of these poems, dark shadows that can be inferred in except “The Other Two,” were between her symbols, or, more considered as 1956 poems. On the straightforwardly, in her poem “The other hand, Hargrove argues, a more Goring,” for example, markedly obscure detailed examination of Plath’s and gruesome, we cannot forget that documents reveal several these are to be regarded as elements inconsistencies in this classification. that hallmark Plath’s poetry and life, and Hence, the most accurate attempt to that they make even more outstanding date Plath’s poems from this period, is the unusually gleaming tone of the Hargrove’s. As she interestingly notes, Benidorm poems. Plath describes plenty of details of her stay in Benidorm in her published In this sense, scholars have not reached letters and journals, and also in some of an agreement as to which poems are the unpublished sources, namely a
Plath Profiles vol. 10 132
small datebook known as The arrange my short studies of the poems Cambridge Pocket Diary for 1955-56 in a more chronological sequence of the (Hargrove 1992: 266). As opposed to facts, that is, their attendance to the this fact, there is not much recorded bullfighting in the first place, the information about the poems she wrote celebration of several aspects of the about her Spanish experiences, which Spanish lifestyle afterwards, and their suggests that these were probably departure. composed later in time (1992: 271). In any case, whether Plath initiated and 2.1. “The Goring” completed them while in Benidorm or a couple of months later, is not a decisive Sylvia Plath found a great source of factor concerning the topic of this inspiration in the bullfight that she and paper. What is truly important is to be Hughes attended in Madrid. “The able to appreciate, as Plath put it, the Goring” is about that hot afternoon in “local color” of these pieces. which she could finally witness the renowned “ceremony” of “ritual death” Moreover, not all of the poems are that Ernest Hemingway so largely equally engaged with the traditional praised, although she finds that it is not aspects of the country. This means that, so. Instead, she realizes that the while poems like “The Goring” or “obese, dark-faced” “picador” stabbing “Alicante Lullaby” are obvious the bull is nothing like an “artwork” (CP examples of cultural display, other 47). In the letter she sent to her mother poems such as “The Spider” or “Dream on July 14, she told her that she and with Clam-Diggers” seem to be more Ted felt outraged because their focused on the inner world of the poet. sympathy was all for the bull. The Of course, this thematic difference is couple expected the epitome of a related, among other reasons, to the ferocious face-to-face confrontation date in which Plath composed the between the man and the beast. What poems, being inspired by either more they found instead was a gruesome recent experience or a recollection of spectacle in which a noble animal was more vanished memories. constantly distracted by other cape- wavers so that the picador riding a This being said, the poems I have horse could get closer and stab the bull chosen for close reading and elaborate on the neck without killing it. The short studies, are the following: “The interesting thing about the poem is that Goring,” “Southern Sunrise,” “Fiesta the bullfight is not what Plath calls “the Melons,” “The Net-Menders” and goring” The goring is the redeeming “Departure.” Regardless of the already act that happens next, the purging mentioned datings, I have decided to sacrifice where Plath, as opposed to the
Plath Profiles vol. 10 133
horrified “mob,” finds the true art. The The colors of this poem are not as goring is the poetic justice for the unfair bright as Plath’s usual range in the slaughter. In her own words, “The most Benidorm poems. On the contrary, they satisfying moment for us was when one are mild and smooth, in order to of the six beautiful doomed bulls evocate a sweet sunrise, perceived still managed to gore a fat, cruel picador … from the mists of dream. Therefore, the he was carried out, spurting blood from line “lemon, mango, peach” (CP 26), his thigh” (LH 263-4). which also alludes to Plath’s fixation with fruits: she loved to cook, and she What makes “The Goring” such a loved wandering the street markets of beautiful poem is that it is a faithful Benidorm to buy fresh food every day. portrayal of the intensity of emotion of The stunning image “green crescent of the poet. It is a composition that oozes palms / Sends up its forked / Firework fierceness even from the vocabulary of fronds” seems to resound overtones chosen. The heat of the situation and of celebration and fertility. Also, the motionless time are palpable in the first allusion to the balcony from which she image, the “dull redness” is imprinted can see the bay relates to her in the “arena” like rust. The action description of the first apartment where hastens towards the middle of the they stayed in Benidorm: “facing the poem, when the picador appears. The cool blue blaze of the bay, was more poet enumerates his garish attributes at than we had dreamed … balcony a fast immediate pace, “rich yellows, terrace, perfect for writing: vines wove tassels, pompons, braid,” emulating the green leaves in the railing; a palm and a confusion that the animal endures. The pine grew alongside shading one side” vengeance of the creature, as opposed (UJ 239). This sunrise is limpid and to all the human artificial paraphernalia impeccable, “quartz-clear,” just like the that the poet considers as “not houses of the streets of the Spanish artwork,” is “fluent as a dance.” The last towns: “the tiny village … immaculate rushes of blood are released white houses and streets” (LH 262). “faultlessly,” probably not appreciated Lastly, keeping with the fruit metaphors, due to the “crowd’s truculence.” The the “red watermelon sun” rises to close poem ends with a condemning image: the poem with intensity and passion. the “sullied air” may have been “redeemed,” although the show is The images in “Southern Sunrise” are nothing but a demonstration of “the peaceful and tranquil. It is hard to earth’s grossness.” suggest an alternative meaning for any symbol to try and find the melancholic 2.2. “Southern Sunrise” tendency of the author. This seems to have been written during one of the
Plath Profiles vol. 10 134
couple’s first awakenings in Benidorm. also very remarkable how she accounts However, as Gordon-Bramer for this inspirational experience with the interestingly notes, there is not a bay melons in her journal: “new green called “Angels’ Bay” in Benidorm. The honeydew melon: not as good as one to which the author might be yesterday (probably, by freak of fortune, referring is the French bay “Baie des the best most delectable melon in the Anges,” perhaps an intermingled world), wild cold honey-flavored melon- recollection of the time Plath spent in flesh; creamy texture, refreshing, sweet France with Richard Sassoon, the man the way sunlight would taste, coming she was in love with before Hughes through the clear glassy green bulk of (Gordon-Bramer 2014: 71). waves” (UJ 258). The way she puts it, one might think of this little pleasure as 2.3. “Fiesta Melons” something close to a mystical experience. Her raw notes, later In “Fiesta Melons” (“Party of the condensed in the poem, create a highly Melons”), the poet accounts for one of synesthetic effect. There is a change in her favorites pastimes: wandering the the tone of the poem marked with a street market of Benidorm to fill her colon, which seems to delimit the straw basket with fresh goods. Upon the moment of simply beholding the observation of the market, “spread out melons, in which the poet focuses on on the beaten dirt square” (UJ 248), she describing the physical appearance of focuses on the huge amount of melons. the fruits, and afterwards, when the She rejoices in the different types, as if persona has tasted the melon that was it were an exhibition of the superb chosen previously. Now, a new diversity of nature. It is hard for her to dimension of compound terms open to choose one among them, but finally classify them, coming into play the rest gets to “Bowl one homeward to taste” of the senses: there are “Cream- (CP 46). The following image is one of smooth,” “Pink-pulped” or “Bump- the most outstanding as regards its rinded,” all of them ornamented with local color: “the whitehot noon”. The strings of seeds “To strew like confetti” fact that Plath utilizes the color “white” in this festival of an inebriated instead of red or orange or any other population of “melon eating / Fiesta- color more usually related to heat (just goers.” like she did, for example, in “Southern Sunrise”) makes it especially evocative 2.4. “Alicante Lullaby” of the blinding effect of the sunbeams when they reflect on the white walls of This is a very enjoyable poem triggered the houses, and the high temperatures by Plath and Hughes’ visit to Alicante. of the scorching Spanish summer. It is Not very far from Benidorm, on their
Plath Profiles vol. 10 135
way to Alicante, they passed pillow” realizes how it all becomes a Villajoyosa,3 of which Plath says that it “Piano, pianissimo” buzz that ends up is “more industrial; passed lots of working as a lullaby. garages; business just starting” (UJ 254). As we can see, as they get closer 2.5. “The Net-Menders” to the capital of the province, the quietness and solitude of Benidorm Another memory she recorded in her vanishes. In her journal, Plath describes journals is the motif of this poem: “Old the city of Alicante as follows: “beach, tanned wrinkled women sit out in chairs short, packed with people so thick at the cool of the day far into the under gaudy striped umbrellas that you twilight, their backs to the street, couldn’t see water … noisy avenue of weaving thick rope nets or fine sardine- palms; … traumatic night walk along mesh. They are clad completely in black quays, and sleepless blaring room” (UJ stockings, dress, shoes, and even, for 254). In the poem, Sylvia Plath plays town shopping, a black mantilla” (UJ with different alliterations to imitate the 247). There are many typical Spanish melodies of the city in order to aspects depicted here. The first of them compose a song full of infectious is that it is typical in towns that widows rhythms: the resounding “bowl,” dressed in black permanently after their “barrels,” “Bumblingly,” “nubs,” husbands or sons died, which explains “cobbles” (CP 43); the crackly why the “three net-menders” are “ramshackle,” “scuttle,” “crowns,” “Dressed in black, everybody in “cackles;” or she addresses acoustic mourning for someone” (CP 121). The phenomena with more specific second aspect is that in summer, when vocabulary, as in “fizzle,” “sibilant,” the sun sets and it gets cooler, old “susurrous.” All these exotic sounds, women get their chairs and put them in however, become a maddening front of the door of their houses, the “Cacophony” when the couple is trying back to the street, and gather together to sleep. In the partial quietness of their to chat until very late at night, thus the room, it is hard to distinguish the lines “They set their stout chairs back to concrete noises, but the “cadenzas” can the road” Tomás Ortuño, the street still be heard. They never seem to end where the couple’s second apartment until the poet, with her “head on the was located, when the sun makes “purples the fig in the leaf’s shadow,”
and until “the moon leans over the lead 3 The name of this town is probably the one that inspired Plath when she was writing the short sea”. They “face the dark,” because the story “Widow Mangada,” in which the night starts to fall. Their favorite pastime protagonists spend their honeymoon in a is gossiping about their neighbors and fictitious town called “Villaviento,” a composed the entire world, so that “Their eyes word that stands for “Windy Villa.”
Plath Profiles vol. 10 136
revolve the whole town like a blue and greatest part of the color of the poem is green ball”. Therefore, “Nobody dies or concentrated here: the “figs” are green, is born without their knowing it” also the grapes, and the tiles are because they know everything. “brickred” (CP 51). The last line of the stanza addresses the problem bluntly: What makes this poem a brilliant “The money’s run out.” A profound composition is the introduction of disillusionment can be read among Greco-Roman mythology, which Sylvia these words, and the rest of the poem Plath absolutely loved. She even gets shaded by grief. The poet feels the recorded in her journal the information vibrant Spanish nature in a very different about the mythological motif she would way now: it “compounds her bitters / use later: the Parcae (UJ 575). These Ungifted, ungrieved, our leavetaking” goddesses were said to control the to accompany the lovers on their way Threads of Destiny, so that they out of Paradise. The following lines decided the destiny of every soul by convey a somehow distressing weaving their threads. With this in mind, description of the vista of Benidorm: the poem acquires a new dimension. “The scraggy rock” upon which the sea We realize that the three net-menders “Beats” in a “brutal endelessly” are in reality the three Parcae, weaving manner. threads to confection the nets that lead the lives of the intrepid fishermen who Other than the sorrowful subject, the are their husbands or sons. They “face reason that may explain the unusual the dark” because there is really gloomy mood of the poem is that, as nothing until they compose it. That is Hargrove notes, the most likely date of also why “Nobody dies or is born composition is much later, around July without their knowing it,” because the in 1958. This hypothesis gains strength three net-menders control it, and in the following line: “Retrospect shall therefore, they “Twist old words into not soften such penury.” It sounds the web-threads.” certainly detached in time, as if the poet were reconstructing that moment at a 2.6. “Departure” distance which is insufficient to blur the “penury” that she so closely Of all the poems we have seen so far, experienced. Furthermore, in the this is perhaps the one that seems the journal entry of July 17 she mentions least cheerful, according to its subject. that she has written a few poems, two The first three lines contain the last hues of which are about Benidorm, and that of a prosperous past time, in which the are “deeper, more sobre, sombre (yet poet describes the last glance at the well colored)” (UJ 410), attributes that apartment before she leaves. The
Plath Profiles vol. 10 137
perfectly fit the characteristics we have acknowledged, Sylvia Plath was fairly analyzed here. hyperbolic when it came to writing letters, especially to her mother: she 3. Conclusion tended to either magnify a more modest reality or omit certain aspects After a closer look at Sylvia Plath’s she did not want her mother to know letters, journals and poems, it seems about. Last but not least, Plath is also sensible to assume that she absolutely known to pose great, unrealistic loved every aspect of her Spanish expectations upon which she grounded experience, and those that upset her, at her fragile mental wellness, with the least could be used as materials for her subsequent disappointments and literary works. The fact that Plath got frustrations. back to her memories of Spain in later periods of her life demonstrates that the In her study Ariel’s Gift: Ted Hughes, Spanish lifestyle left a firm impression Sylvia Plath, and the Story of Birthday on her. Her sojourn in Spain infused in Letters (2000), Erica Wagner analyzes her a full range of sensory impressions Ted Hughes’ account, which we can that enhanced her tendency to focus on read in his book of poems composed strong emotions. In this case it could be on the death of Plath, Birthday Letters suggested that the Spanish poems were (1988), and she argues that indeed it a sort of training ground for her later was Hughes who enjoyed Spain the poetry. most while Plath felt outraged all the time. In relation to this, one of Hughes’ Nonetheless, we cannot ignore the poem, titled very boldly “You Hated other side of the coin. The episode Spain,” claims that it was he who “felt described in her journal entry on July 23 at home” in Spain (BL 39). He assesses is very disturbing. Probably the result of that “Spain frightened you.” The key for a bitter argument with Ted Hughes, she this understanding is in the following speaks about “two strangers. Two silent line: “Your schooling had somehow strangers” that have gone reluctantly neglected Spain.” As Hughes saw it, for a walk, and one of them struggles Sylvia Plath was an American born and with the insistently mentioned raised girl that was not ready to deal “wrongness” that “grows in the skin with the outer regions beyond her and makes it hard to touch” (UJ 250). college education. This would explain Besides, Kukil indicates that the first her hatred towards the bullfight and the part of this entry, typed on a separate poor living conditions of their first leaf, is missing. This occurrence casts a accommodation. On the other hand, shadow over the “perfect” honeymoon the poem called “Drawing” tenderly of the couple. Also, as it is widely depicts what should have been a more
Plath Profiles vol. 10 138
average day. In this poem, Hughes Hargrove, Nancy D. “The Chronology nostalgically remembers Plath while she of Sylvia Plath’s Poems: 1956-1959.” drawing the market of Benidorm: “We Studies in Bibliography 45 (1992): 265- were familiar / foreign objects … 291. Web. 13 Nov. 2016. Everybody crowded to praise your drawing” (BL 44). In any case, there is Hughes, Ted. Birthday Letters. New no reason to doubt the genuineness of York: Farrar, 1988. Print. Plath’s enthusiastic recollections in her journals, her most personal and sincere Mazón Martínez, Tomás. “Benidorm. Un production. Hughes goes on to say that destino turístico de altura.” Gran Tour: “You drew doggedly on, arresting Revista de Investigaciones Turísticas 2 details, / Till you had the whole scene (2010): 8-22. Web. 13 Nov. 2016. imprisoned. / Here it is. You rescued for ever / Our otherwise lost morning.” In Plath, Sylvia. The Collected Poems of her Spanish poems Sylvia Plath took a Sylvia Plath. Ed. Ted Hughes. New York: firm hold of the art of capturing sensory Harper, 1981. Print. perceptions: color, textures, flavors, light, among others, which she would ---. Letters Home. Ed. Aurelia S. Plath. later develop in her mature poetry. New York: Harper, 1975. Print.
REFERENCES ---. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath. Ed. Karen V. Kukil. New York: Almiñana Orozco, Pasqual. “De quan Anchor, 2000. Print. Sylvia Plath va vindre a Benidorm.” Revista d’investigació i assaig de la Reddick, Yvonne. “‘After Lorca’: Ted Marina Baixa 6 (2011): 82-115. Web. 13 Hughes and the Influence of Federico Nov. 2016. García Lorca.” Modern Language Review 108 (2013): 681-99. Web. 13 Bundtzen, Lynda K. “Lucent Figs and Nov. 2016. Suave Veal Chops: Sylvia Plath and Food.” Gastronomica 10, 1 (2010): 79- Wagner, Erica. Ariel’s Gift: Ted Hughes, 90. Web. 13 Nov. 2016. Sylvia Plath, and the Story of Birthday Letters. New York: Faber and Faber, Gordon-Bramer, Julia. “History and a 2000. Print. Case for Prescience: Short Studies of Sylvia Plath’s 1956 Poems.” Plath Wagner-Martin, Linda. Sylvia Plath: A Profiles 7 (2014): 59-81.Web. 13 Nov. Biography. New York: Simon and 2016. Schuster, 1987. Print.
Plath Profiles vol. 10 139