Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath

The Rabbit Catcher
—for Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath

“living with her
own gamekeeper”
—Diane Middlebrook
“Creative Partnership—
The Rabbit Catcher,”
The Unraveling Archive:
Essays on Sylvia Plath,
Ann Arbor, U of Michigan
Press, 2007, 254-268

1

Arctic explorers—have said
More than once—that after
Awhile two men—trudging
Through the—Northern wastes
Alone together—two-some
Beneath the—Aurora Borealis
Or in their tent—at night
Unacknowledged—at first
Then accepted—a silent stranger
Mind-melds—with both men
Completing—a doppelganger
Ménage-a-trois—so that
There’s a—Third Man

2

The same with—poet couples
Marriage—as creative partnership
Conducted—in the context of
Youthful incessant—dialog
So that both Plath—and Hughes
Both felt themselves—join
Together in a—single shared mind
Accessed by erotic—tenderness
And telepathy—a little Ouija
And as Hughes—says in his
Birthday Letters—even after
Sylvia’s death—the inner
Place of force—the Snare
The Blood-jet—still lived

3

This double-life—apprenticeship
It doesn’t last long—does it?
Hughes could be—the gamekeeper
Only so long—and Sylvia could
Only be—Lady Chatterley briefly
Inspired by—D.H. Lawrence
Only so long—as the joy of
A woman—living with her own
Gamekeeper—could last
So that—Court Green became
The great Tap Root—the place
Of power—stasis in darkness
That waited for—these two
Young lovers—born poets

4

What was—this relationship?
Dense with—literary resonance
Formed during—their marriage
Before cleavage—separated them?
Plath’s marriage—glorified
Hughes through—masculinity
But listening—to him read
His poetry—like “Pike” online
Doesn’t reveal—a Bully Boy
A Mytholmroyd—young hoodlum
A booted Moloch—Big Bad Daddy
But more—delicate and cat-like
His grace with words—Thought Fox

5

In this—intimate wavelength
They recaptured—and shared
And spoke plainly—possessing
Special access—improvising
Bonding together—telepathically
Years together—to write poems
Verse epistles—to catch it
The Magic Rabbit—antiphonal
Pair of—poets bent on being
Famous—independent of the
Academic racket—flowing
With the—inquisitive Hare
Tumbling out of—Burning Air
First Fulbright—then Guggenheim

6

There was the—erotic strategy
The seduction—of the Triple Goddess
The Snaring—of T.H. Lawrence
The Enantiodromia—of the Other
The flow of—dynamic stanzas
The words—violating the Aether
Buttressed—by parody & pastiche
So that Plath—actually turned
Out to be—more Gamekeeper
And Rabbit Cather—than Hughes
She ending up—being the real
Instinctive aggressive—Other
D.H. Lawrence’s—Calder Valley
Yorkshire—“blood consciousness”
Thanks to Gerald—and Sylvia

7

D.H. Lawrence—celebrated
Animal insights—Hughes
Lived them—in Calder Valley
West Yorkshire—growing up
With his older brother—hunting
Fishing on the moors—above
The valley and—ruined factory
Cityscape—left down below
Mexborough—even worse
A coal—mining town—down
In South Yorkshire—that’s
When Gerald—left Ted as a
Gamekeeper—a Devon estate
Then off to—Australia

8

A “conjoined” personality—organ
Of poetic perception—hunter
Psychic—adolescent third Eye
Deeply influenced—by Gerald
Naked and innocent—boyhood
Blood-jet—sexually aware
Both Plath—and Hughes
Turning to Lawrence—inching
Their way deeper—into the
Clenched—concise short
Stanza bursts—that both
Young poets—simultaneously
Discovered—to be themselves
Voice—from the bottom of the well

9

The little deaths—come and go
The autobiographical—projects
The surreal—confessionals
The insider accounts—privileged
Lost knowledge—both knowing it
Both—caught in the anguished
Snare—their apprenticeship over
Killer instinct—such a quick thing
That is was—separation time
Not just because of—Assia Wevill
But Hughes himself—had changed
Gamekeeper lifestyle—maturing
Moving on—as a poet playboy
With a wife—who accepted it

10

Years later Hughes—knows this
What he didn’t know—back then
But which Plath knew—catching
Something in him—nocturnal and
Unknown—just part of that spurt
Of secretive—dual existence
That had always been—a vital part
Of his boyhood—and adolescence
Up to the age—of seventeen
Hunting and fishing—away from
Home—preoccupied with animals
Pretty much all alone—and books
Leading the double life—solitary
Pursuit of his—dark primitive self.

11

Sylvia was—the real Huntress
Diana of the Woode—chasing Ted
It wasn’t the Wevill visit—or the
Love affair with Assia—it was
The end of the—blood-jet romance
The obsessive—game of tag with
The unknown—secret double
That got revealed—to both poets
And lovers—inner game preserve
Where nocturnal—deep impulses
And Panthers—make predators
Of us all—stealthy libido and
Unlicensed—voyeurismo driving
Us up the wall—when we’re young

12

It was the—simultaneous
End of their—apprenticeship
As poets—and intense lovers
They’d outgrown—each other
Plath—into Feminist Future
Hughes—into his Hunter legacy
The consequence—Separation
The domain—of femme fatale
World of—mystic Mytholmroyd
These two—places of power
Pivot-points—partnership and
Marriage—which Hughes
Treasured to—the end of his
Life—she was his better half