Hughes evokes the academic world of Cambridge with the ring of perfect recollection. First snapshot isolated Unalterable, stilled in the camera's glare. Than ever you were again. It seemed your long, perfect, American legs Simply went on up. That flaring hand, Those long, balletic, monkey-elegant fingers.
Landscapes become dreamscapes.
Hughes' own visionary poetry is concentrated here, focused by all the light of his strong imagination to a white-hot point of fire. Readers who know nothing about Plath and Hughes will still find it compelling, but those familiar with the story and with Plath's poems will find extraordinary riches here. The poems about their courtship comprise my favorite part of the collection. Naked and easy as lovers, a month of nights. Yet never once made love.