Sylvia Plath’s Letters/Kazi Nazrul Islam Anniversary – Poetry News Roundup August 27th

We begin the week here at My Poetic Side with a look at the Sylvia Plath letters which are due to be published shortly and have caused some consternation with the estate of Ted Hughes. We also look at the commemoration of the 42nd anniversary of the death of the poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.

Sylvia Plath Letters “Absurd” Claim Ted Hughes Estate

The estate of Ted Hughes, the late poet laureate, have claimed that suggestions made by the poet Sylvia Plath to whom Hughes was married for a number of years, are absurd.

In previously unpublished correspondence that Plath wrote to Dr Ruth Beuscher her former psychiatrist, she claims that Hughes

This is in reference to a miscarriage that she suffered in 1962. She states that the reason for Hughes treatment of her is that she tore up some of his papers. In another letter written in the same year Plath also wrote “Ted ‘got courage’ and left me”.

A statement has been issued by The Ted Hughes Estate on behalf of Carol Hughes, the poet’s widow stating

This is not the first time that these claims have been mentioned in public, as they were publicly rebutted in April 2017. This time the letters have been made public by the couple’s daughter, Freida Hughes who says she wants them to be read as evidence that shows how her parents’ marriage was crumbling. She goes on to claim further that whilst they do not show her father in a good light, her mother does not come off particularly well either.

Plath committed suicide at the age of 30 in 1963. Hughes passed away in 1998 at the age of 68.

42^ndAnniversary of Rebel Poet’s Death to be Commemorated

Yesterday the National Poet of Bangladesh Kazi Nazrul Islam was commemorated on the 42^ndanniversary of his death.

Sometimes referred to as the “Rebel Poet”, Nazrul was a prolific poet and musician who worked primarily with the themes of devotion to religion and spiritual rebellion against the ideas of tyranny and dictatorship. He worked tirelessly against social and political injustice.

An elaborate programme of cultural events took place in addition to several special television programmes on the poet’s life and works which were aired during the day. Some of the events were attended by a number of high ranking ministers. The programme began with the laying of a floral wreath on the poet’s grave.

Following the programme of events that took place yesterday a series of lectures are planned that will take place on 30^thAugust at the Bangla Academy.

Nazrul who was born in 1899 was buried beside the Dhaka University Central Mosque with full state honours.