Sylvia Plath – "Caryatids?"?

Question

Ted Hughes made a few cryptic references to the first Sylvia Plath poem he read, something about caryatids. I can't seem to find the name of the poem anywhere. Can anyone help, or has it been lost?

Anonym · Accepted Answer

I know the poem you're talking about. It's called "'Three Caryatids Without a Portico' by Hugh Robus: A Study in Sculptural Dimensions."

Plath wrote the poem when she was a student and Ted Hughes had a friend who gave the poem a bad review. That bad review motivated Plath to attend a party that was being hosted bu Hughes and his reviewer friend. Plath and Hughes met at this party, so this poem was very important as it basically began the infamous Plath-Hughes relationship.

I've been looking for that poem for years and have never found it. It wasn't even published in Plath's collected poems.

If you can track down a 1959 issue of an obscure student magazine name "Chequer", you may be able to find it.

Chequer 9. Winter 1956: 2, 3

Sylvia Plath – "Caryatids?"?

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