Wuthering Heights

Deeply atmospheric, this unrhymed lyric poem consists of five nine-line stanzas. Its first-person speaker is usually identified with the poet herself, as the poem is based on Plath’s experiences in Yorkshire. However, the poem itself does not give many clues about the speaker’s identity, conveying instead a sense of feeling overwhelmed by the landscape. The poet uses each stanza to examine one particular element of the landscape, starting with the horizon at sunset. Despite the speaker feeling stultified by the elements, they continue to move through nature. This shows that despite the hopelessness the speaker experiences, they refuse to remain static. Their forward movement is mirrored by the progression of the day in the poem. By the poem’s end, sunset has turned to night.

In the first stanza, the speaker uses the odd comparison of kindling to describe the line of the horizon. In literature and art, the horizon usually signifies openness, but here the bunches of sticks seem to “ring” (Line 1) or encircle the speaker. The implication is the horizon crowds or confines them. Further, the otherwise neat, picturesque line of the horizon appears transformed into untidy, unstable bundles, “tilted and disparate” (Line 2). “Disparate” echoes desperation and despair and shows the speaker’s heightened