The hills step off into whiteness.
People or stars
Regard me sadly, I disappoint them.
The train leaves a line of Breath,
O slow
Horse the colour of rust,
Hooves, dolorous bells-
All morning the
Morning has been blackening,
A flower left out.
My bones hold a stillness, the far
Fields melt my heart.
They threaten
To let me through to a heaven
Starless and fatherless, a dark water.
by Sylvia Plath
First Published in ‘Ariel‘, ed T Hughes. (1965) ‘The Evolution of Sheep in Fog’, by Ted Hughes, from ‘Winter Pollen‘. F+F.
( for discussions on editing Plath, cf ‘Winter Pollen’, ‘The Restored edition of Ariel’ and ‘The Collected Plath’.) I am linking here to my recent post Restored Music, Sylvia Plath’s ‘Ariel’
Chris Murray 