Wuthering Heights

“The Great Carbuncle” by Sylvia Plath (1957)

One of Plath’s Yorkshire poems, “The Great Carbuncle” juxtaposes the beauty of the moors with the danger posed by nuclear weapons. Plath imagines “eight pilgrims” (Line 10) or missiles headed toward the green moors; the light of the missiles transforms the faces and hands of people and the scenery. The gorgeous landscape is described as “the great jewel” (Line 11) that will be annihilated by the great festering sore of the missiles. The poem is notable for its politics; its surreal, weird imagery; and its ambiguity regarding the landscape, which is beautiful yet doomed.

“I am Vertical” by Sylvia Plath (1961)

Written in 1961 but published posthumously in the collection Crossing the Water (1971), this poem is an example of Plath’s use of spatial imagery to depict mental states. Like in “Wuthering Heights,” there exists a tension between being vertical while bearing responsibilities, and being horizontal, which is to be annihilated and exist as a part of nature.

“The Glass Essay” by Ann Carson (1994)

Carson’s poem is written over three decades after Plath’s work and shares with it powerful moorland imagery. While Plath’s poem is told by a single speaker, Carson’s longer poem switches between personae.