ARIEL

—for WhiskeyPriest

“There is a certain poetic symmetry in the fact that Plath, who was haunted by Shakespeare’s TEMPEST, and repeatedly used its imagery in her poetry…”—Jane Shilling, “Sylvia Plath’s secrets are hidden in plain sight,” The Telegraph  02 Feb 2013

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9843847/Sylvia-Plaths-secrets-are-hidden-in-plain-sight.html 

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Just take a look, my dears—
the sickening str8t criticism

Think of Witch SYCORAX trapping us—
then released by PROSPERO
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Here we are all these years later—
how much Shakespeare scholarship?

Endless rolls of prim hetero toilet paper—
wiping silly str8t asses so adroitly
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Wiping away anything to do—
with ARIEL disturbingly just so

Is it because we’d rather still play—
the same old NYTimes game?
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Ted Hughes slavishly worshipped—
creamed over by Brit Lit?

Philip Larkin turning down Laureateship—
“No, my dears, let Ted Hughes do it”
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Calling Sylvia a Hammers Film poet—
and perhaps he’s after all correct

If Sylvia had survived her divorce—
one can only say, DESDEMONA?
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Would ARIEL have been published—
the way Sylvia intended it to be?

Free from SHAKESPEARE strictures—
unencumbered by SYCORORAX?