Two Lovers and a Beachcomber by the Real Sea
1955 poem by Sylvia Plath / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Two Lovers and a Beachcomber by the Real Sea" is a poem written by Sylvia Plath that was first published in 1955, the year she graduated from Smith College summa cum laude.[1] An abstract poem about an absent lover, it uses clear, vivid language to describe seaside scenery, with "a grim insistence" on reality rather than romance and imagination.[2][3][4][5]
Two Lovers and a Beachcomber by the Real Sea | |
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by Sylvia Plath | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Rhyme scheme | ABAB (slant rhyme) |
Publication date | 1955 (1955) |
Lines | 24 |
The poem was awarded a 1955 Glascock Prize[1] and appeared in Mademoiselle in August 1955, accompanying an article about the prize.[6]:ā163ā
Plath used "Two Lovers and a Beachcomber by the Real Sea" as the title poem of a collection she submitted unsuccessfully to the Yale Series of Younger Poets,[2][6][7] and as a working title for the collection that was eventually published as The Colossus.[2] But Plath later came to be critical of the poem; in 1958 she mentioned it as an example of the "old crystal-brittle and sugar-faceted voice" that she wanted to move past.[8][9][10]