Sylvia Plath - Nature

Sylvia Plath boldly set the bar for confessional poetry in the 1950s. Using nature as a theme in many of her poems, Plath externalised her internal demons in a unique way. The narrative voice in her “nature” poems illustrates Plath's complicated relationship with the natural world. The reader can relate to this, and draw their own conclusion on humanity both in and out of nature. As time goes on, and Plath's sanity becomes even more fragile, the narrator's relationship with nature becomes more intimate and intense. Such poems include "Blackberrying" and “Poppies in July", where the narrator explores her personal connection with nature. "Two Campers in Cloud country" is a sharp contrast, featuring a more observant narrative. All three of these poems share a similarity in technique however, with Plath using symbolism, imagery and metaphorical language to relate to nature.

"Two Campers in Cloud Country" is the narrative of someone contemplating their insignificance when compared to the world. The narrative in this poem differs from that in "Blackberrying" and "Poppies in July", as it is more observant and detached rather than having the intensity displayed in the others. Plath uses features of nature to externalise her own feelings, and it turn make it more accessible for the reader to access theirs. This makes the poem more personal to the reader. Plath begins the poem by transporting the reader into a world with "neither measure nor balance". Immediately, the reader is taken out of their comfort zone, and find themselves in a country where there is nothing to "redress the dominance of rocks and woods". The dominant images produced from this make mood uneasy and uncertain. The images of rocks remind us of nature's indomitability, while the woods are symbolic of the mysteries of the natural world. The dichotomy of nature and culture is also touched upon. Culture tries to dominate nature, by creating "countries". However, the images created from "the dominance of