Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath

The main difference between Plath’s and Hughes’ poetry, is that Plath writes about her own experiences. Whereas Hughes experience is second hand, he writes about his own pain though Plath’s experiences. In the poem Daddy, Plath is talking about her childhood. She is writing as she remembers it. On the other hand the way Hughes writes Tender place is through Plath’s experience of electrocution. The Poem ‘Daddy’ is set in Sylvia’s childhood. It is a very violent and conflicted poem. She is talking about how horrible her father is and he is characterized as a Nazi, devil and vampire. It is very odd that she calls her father ‘Daddy’ since it is a very fond name, and she seems to hate him. This poem sounds very dark and disturbing, it is like a nursery, and it’s playful in a violent way. It is very rhythmic and over-the-top; this makes the violence even creepier. You could say it’s a reminder of the nursery rhymes her father sung to her. The playfulness of the sounds paired with the violence show Sylvia’s internal struggle between loving and hating her deceased father. Now looking at Ted Hughes poem ‘Tender place’ he mentions Sylvia’s father briefly, ’You your Daddy’s leg.’ I first thought that it was quite a nice sentence. Then I re-read it and it seems like Plath is heading for the same fate as her father. It seems a little peculiar that Hughes only mentioned Sylvia’s father ones, since it was known that she got depressed after her father died. Also the way he uses the word ‘Daddy’ as well, it a little odd. It is a very fond word for someone who scarred Sylvia’s life. Back to the nursery rhyme, it mentions living in a black shoe (There was an old women who lived in a shoe). Throughout the poem we go through a lot of different settings, there’s the more realistic settings and the more mystical settings. She talks about the Jewish and how she can relate to them, making her problems seem as important as they are. Sylvia pains Ted Hughes out to be like her