Close Reading on Poems Sylvia Plath Wrote on February 1st, 1963, in Yeats’s House

Abstract

In 1962, Sylvia Plath divorced Ted Hughes after six years of marriage. Not long after the finalization of their divorce, Sylvia moved from their infamous home at Court Green to the former childhood home of W.B. Yeats—one of Sylvia’s favorite poets—at 23 Fitzroy Road. For this reason, she connected—with her new phase as a divorcée, single-parent, and full-time poetess—her lease at 23 Fitzroy Road signaled a promising beginning for Sylvia’s personal and literary life. Sylvia formally moved into 23 Fitzroy Road in December 1962, and after a brutal winter and horrid flu, she wrote thirteen poems as a tenant of Yeats’s home. On February 1st, 1963, Sylvia produced three original poems; the most poems she wrote in a single day, since moving to 23 Fitzroy Road. This thesis is a very straightforward close reading of the meaning and poetics of the three poems Sylvia Plath wrote on February 1st, 1963—ten days before she died by suicide in the very same house. These poems were titled “Mystic”, “Kindness”, and “Words”.