The First Pure Clear Place
In September 1962, Sylvia Plath and her husband, Ted Hughes, visited Ireland as guests of the Irish poet Richard Murphy. Murphy brought them to visit Yeats’s tower at Ballylee, which Plath later described in a letter as ‘the first pure clear place’ that she had visited for some time. The visit to Ireland, as well as being a pilgrimage to the land of Yeats, was meant to rekindle Plath and Hughes’s relationship, but even Yeats’s blessing was not enough to save the marriage.
This programme, presented by Leontia Flynn, explores Sylvia Plath’s lifelong admiration of WB Yeats. She loved his work and studied it carefully and it influenced her own development as a poet.
Contributors to the programme are: Heather Clark, author of the acclaimed biography Red Comet: The short life and blazing art of Sylvia Plath; academic researcher Dr Maria Johnston, who describes seeing Plath’s own books of Yeats’s poetry, with their notes and underlinings; poet Gerald Dawe, who recalls Richard Murphy, whom he knew personally.
Sylvia Plath’s poems and letters (Faber) are read by Annie Ryan and extracts from Richard Murphy’s memoir The Kick (Cork University Press) by Sean O’Neill. The programme also contains rare archive of Sylvia Plath speaking about Yeats and reading some of her work in a 1958 Library of Congress recording.
Presented by Leontia O’Flynn
Produced by Claire Cunningham
A Rockfinch production for RTÉ lyric fm with support from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland from the television license fee
Producer for RTÉ lyric fm: Eoin O Kelly
Production Coordinator: Peter Curtin
(First broadcast – 12/2/23)
RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday 10th December, 6pm-7pm
