The Poetess Of Heptonstall

Heptonstall is a tiny village near to my home here in the hills of Yorkshire, England. Sylvia was... Well! I guess you all know who Sylvia was.

This high, half-hidden, churchyard
Where coldness and rain find a home
And the nightfall is welcomed at twilight's end.

The lament of the deafened, defining the dusk,
And complecting its blanket, a chilled shielding shroud ~
A poet lies sleeping alone in her cot.

But verses are silently wrested away
Brilliantly noiseless not rhyming nor free:
And how the wind whistles here all about.

Then, strangely, disturbing the shadowless eve
A voice, a beseeching, may softly be heard.
O' Sylvia, Sylvia, why for art thou here?

Reviews

[Chris Shaw]

Tragic Sylvia and she rests so close to where you reside Alan. The churchyard exposed to the elements of cold, rain and wind. This is a haunt of a read for a poet who resorted to suicide in her unhappiness. I think of her young children with such sadness. Maybe the voice though represents her husband Ted Hughes. I think she certainly would have haunted his years. A very sad and atmospheric write.

Chris

[Alan S Jeeves]

Heptonstall is beautiful at this time of the year although bleak in winter. The Hughes family lived in the valley below - Mytholmroyd. Sylvia Plath rests not too far away from Haworth, the home of the Bronte sisters in the mid 19th, century. The area is steeped in History. A short horse ride out of Haworth and onto Haworth Moor, I can still visit 'Top Withens' a now ruined farmstead which is believed to be the inspiration for Emily Bronte's 1847 novel 'Wuthering Heights' and yes! I do go on a bit don't I ?
Thanks for stopping by the wild moors of Yorkshire Chris, and reading about a poor American girl, maybe she should never have travelled to England when she did - who knows ?

Kind regards, Alan

[Robert Haigh]

I have visited Heptonstall many times over the years, and I have visited Sylvia Plath's grave. Sylvia was a troubled soul, but she was a great poet! A nice tribute to her.

[Alan S Jeeves]

Thank you Robert, I am pleased to hear that you have visited Sylvia in her new home. The world has been deprived of great poetry, as you say she was a great poet(ess).
Kind regards, Alan

[John the Baptist]

A sad case, that of Sylvia Plath. One wonders about the source of the voice. Possibly her spouse, the poet Ted Hughes. Maybe all those who appreciated her poetry. A haunting tribute, this.

[Alan S Jeeves]

Yes John, sad indeed. One of your U.S. poets who loved the U.K. and especially Yorkshire which was Ted Hughes' family home. She loved the village of Heptonstall (localy pronounced Heponstall) and, living nearby, I am fortunate enough to know why.
Her headstone is inscribed 'Sylvia Plath Hughes' and the 'Hughes' part has been scratched away by her admirers who feel Hughes (once U.K. Poet Laureate) was, in some way, responsible for her taking her own life.
I have tried to compose this poem in the style of Hughes, I don't know if I have succeeded. Also I don't know who owns the 'voice' (that's for the reader to decide) But I do know that in the churchyard at twilight in the misty depths of one's imagination it can be clearly heard.
Kind regards from Yorkshire, England,, Alan