Frieda Hughes, painter and poet, was born on 1 April 1960. Sylvia Plath, her mother wrote this expectant celebration of her ‘little loaf, ‘snug as a bud’, ‘all ripples’ – I think it’s a wonderful tumble of images.
You’re
Clownlike, happiest on your hands
… … …
Mute as a turnip from the Fourth
Of July to All Fools’ Day,
O high-riser, my little loaf.
How beautifully wrote of pregnancy, birth, and little children! It’s a pity that many people associate her exclusively with doom, gloom, marital calamity and death. You can read the whole poem on her publisher’s website.
Sylvia Plath with Frieda and Nicholas, Court
Green, April 1962. Photograph by Siv Arb.