"The Blue Flannel Suit" is a poem by

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

published in 1998 in his book ''

Birthday Letters ''Birthday Letters'' is a 1998 poetry collection by English poet and children's writer Ted Hughes. Released only months before Hughes's death, the collection won multiple prestigious literary awards. This collection of eighty-eight poems is widel ...

''. The 30th of 88 poems in the collection, "The Blue Flannel Suit" is one of several in the series explicitly about his wife Sylvia Plath.Kakutani, Michiko (February 2, 1998)
'Birthday Letters': A Portrait of Plath in Poetry for Its Own Sake.
''

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'' Prior to the series, Hughes had rarely discussed their relationship or Plath's death or responded to claims by some critics that he bore some responsibility for her state of mind and death.Parini, Jay (February 6, 1998)
Bitter fame.

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Context and analysis

In the poem, Hughes describes the blue flannel suit Plath wore for her first day of teaching at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

in 1957, just prior to her 25th birthday. Plath had graduated from Smith in 1955 and returned there after attending

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sid ...

on a

Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

. While at Cambridge, she met Hughes, and they were living together when she began teaching. Plath found it difficult to both teach and have enough time and energy to write Kirk, Connie Ann. (2004). ''Sylvia Plath: A Biography.'' Greenwood Press. and in the middle of 1958, the couple moved to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. Plath took a job as a receptionist in the psychiatric unit of

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

and became involved in the local poetry scene. In the poem, Hughes describes the suit as a "mad, execution uniform" which represented what Plath wanted to become.Sagar, Keith (2007). ''The Laughter of Foxes: A Study of Ted Hughes.'' Second edition, Liverpool University Press, In retrospect, Hughes describes how ill-fitted she was for the short-lived job teaching, using her clothing as a symbol.Sword, Helen (2002). ''Ghostwriting Modernism.'' Cornell University Press, Critic Lynda Buntzen writes that the poem plays with the sense of time to capture the simultaneously fleeting and permanent sense of loss Hughes felt: Lines like "as I am stilled / Permanently now, permanently / Bending so briefly at your open coffin" juxtapose descriptions of a fleeting moment with a sense of permanence.Bundtzen, Lynda K. (2001). ''The Other Ariel''. University of Massachusetts Press, Bundtzen, Lynda K. (2000)
Mourning Eurydice: Ted Hughes as Orpheus in "Birthday Letters."
'' Journal of Modern Literature'', Vol. 23, No. 3/4, Summer, 2000 pp. 455-469.

References

External links

Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes: Reading Group Guide
via

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...

1998 poems Poetry by Ted Hughes Sylvia Plath English poems {{1990s-UK-poem-stub