Sentence ideas

Ted Hughes Fulbright scholars demonstrates how truth can morph with time
and be misinterpreted depending on the one presenting it. No version of the
truth is more greater than the other and through the study of the poetry by Ted
Hughes in Birthday letters; Fulbright Scholars and Sam in contrast with Sylvia
Plaths 1954 Gordon Lemeyer photograph and her poem Whiteness I
remember we realise that the truth is not static entity; it can change with
different perspectives and representations as we discover that truth is never
pure and rarely simple.
Context
Rode 12 December, 2 months before she met Hughes

Plaths passionate nature was condemned by a consequent intensity a seeming need for drama
and turmoil despite the cost. Tempestuous relationship. Hughes sexual dalliances. After the suicide
of both of Hughes love interests, Plath and Assia, Plath became an icon for the feminist movement
and Hughes was frequently demonised. Plath wrote Whiteness I remember in 1958, the year she
met Hughes, at a time when she was living in Boston, working as a receptionist in a psychiatric unit
and attending seminars on creative writing by confessional poet Robert Lowell.
Form of Poetry
Poetry as a textual form is an effective vehicle for sharing ideas, emotions, and attitudes to human
experiences. Poetry is a condensed form of communication and is thus often powerful in its
emotional intensity. The use of metaphors and symbolism to create a variety of emotions and
attitudes is used by both Plath and Hughes as they strive to convey their perspective and achieve a
purpose towards the responder. By publishing Birthday letters, in an epistolary literary form, Hughes
creates an intimacy between his us and his subject matter as he conveys his perspective with the
knowledge it would be met by many conflicting perspectives. Writing in the style of Robert Lowell
with his confessional poetry, Hughes explored a genre of expressive poetry he previously eluded, a
genre which provided the basis for Plaths poems.
Textual features






Sam and Whiteness I remember represent conflicting perspectives of the same event
How has both Plath and Hughes shaped meaning (manipulated structural and textural features) in
response to their context, purpose and perspective, and influenced your response to each poem?
Both Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes demonstrate their own personal representations of the
event that occurred on the 12
th
December 1955 regarding Plaths horse ride on Sam,
Plath with Whiteness I remember and Hughes with his provocative account in, Sam.
It is the subjectivity of these representations between two independent composers, Plath
writing in a time of contentment and Hughes a time of tensions, that creates conflicting
perspectives that position us to respond to both through separate lenses. The way we
respond is influenced by the act of representation as contrasting viewpoints
demonstrated in Whiteness and Sam, illustrates how, through a manipulation of both
textural and structural devices and the use of the intimate form of poetry a
contemplative construction of reality - that different portrayals of the same event can be
created. Plaths Whiteness establishes her perspective of the tumultuous horse ride she
encountered as one of liberation and breathless exaltation, conceived through her use
textual devices throughout its candour entirety. However, Hughes uses similar textual
and structural techniques paradoxically, starkly contrasting Plaths account of the event,
positioning the event as a precarious, dangerous and ultimately useless endeavour. It
is through the composers acts of representation and their manipulation of textual and
structural features, that we are positioned to view the same event with subjective and
conflicting perspectives.
Through the intimate nature of epistolary poetry, the paradoxical nature of the emotional
and physical sensations of the ride between whiteness and sam becomes evident.
Plath, writing at a time of contentment, saw her ride on Sam as a revelation,
constructing whiteness with the intent on focusing on the emotional sensations of the
ride, purposefully using its physical elements to strengthen an overall tone of liberation
and breathless exhilaration. The thrill of a fear she was able to identify, understand and
assess juxtaposed an underlying fear of survival in a more mentally unstable field of
trauma that she had no control of and saw no solution to, producing a tone of life
affirmation, justified in her final sentence fear, wisdom, at one: all colours spinning to
still in his one whiteness. Plaths cathartic outlook to the ride is also supported by the
epic nature of her diction, the great run he gave me, high as the roofs (hyperbole),
the world subdued to his run of it, loud on earths bedrock. In this sense Plath has
constructed her perspective of the ride and its nature to position us to empathise with
these life affirming sensations, and subsequently Plaths context and perspective has
influenced our own view on the ride.
However, Hughes complicated this representation, creating a conflicting perspective on
the event, using both metaphorical and textual features, creating more accusatory and
negative undertones throughout his poem Sam a provocative response to what he
saw as a narrow minded account. The accusatory nature of Sam is explored through his
first sentence It was all of a piece to you, the repetition of you lost, the potent diction
of useless, and the metaphorical allegory of their relationship in the last stanza where
he blamed her for tripping him. Through his use of potent metaphors upside-down
jockey, propeller terrors, Hughes constructs a vivid image of Plath as lacking control
of the situation and through personification Maybe your poems saved themselves
construct the idea that Plaths survival was not due to what she saw as her own
resoluteness and was instead an act of luck. Through the form of poetry, Hughes was
able to focus on the physical sensations of the ride and construct a more cynical and
accusatory perspective of the event as being redundantly precarious and ultimately
useless. His use of metaphors baby monkey and clinging steel also created a
conflicting image of Plath as being both vulnerable and determined. But it is Hughes
final stanza that starkly contrasts Plaths perspective of the ride as he draws out a
deeper metaphorical meaning to the ride itself.
The form of poetry allows for both literal and metaphorical expression and it is this
freedom that allows Hughes to make use of an extended metaphor that provides an
allegory to their relationship and positions Plath as unstable and vindictive. Positioning
us to view Hughes as the stallion, tripped by Plath, positions us to see him as the
innocent victim. The metaphor of him jumping the fence is perhaps referencing his
adulterine activities, therefore justifying elements of guilt, however it is his reference to
Plath as the rider that provokes a frustration towards Plaths determination to survive
Sams ride and yet not the tumultuous ride of their relationship. This frustration is
supported by bitter verbs strangled, giddy, flung, tripped and justifies the finality
of the final sentence over in a flash, emphasising the halting of rapid spiral out of
control their relationship and Plaths tumultuous life encountered. Whilst the perspective
provided in Sam starkly contrasts that in whiteness, Hughes, writing within a personal
context of Plaths inner daemons , is merely responding to Whiteness and the event
as an onlooker with a purpose of exploring connection of the ride with the issues
surrounding both Plaths state and the state of their relationship.
Sam conflicts with Whiteness in a similar fashion to the persona of Plath herself, with
the complex nature of the human condition allowing for multiple interpretations of single
events. The subjective nature of interpretation is what separates the way we respond to
these acts of representation, with a purposeful positioning of the responder by the
composer being limited in its effectiveness. Plath and Hughes account differ due to
differences in perspectives however their poems provide an insight that decisively
position us to see their perceptions through the use of the form of poetry and the
manipulation of structural and textual devices. Conflicting poems like Whiteness and
Sam merely provide a perspective and allow for its interpretation however conflicting
they may be.