An overlooked poem receives a VCU spotlight

Notes scribbled in the margins of textbooks, novels or books of poetry are not unusual findings for students reading their way through used textbooks. Most students overlook previous highlighted markings or scribbled side thoughts. But every once in a while, such notes lead to significant discoveries.

When Anna Journey found a side-margin note in a previously owned copy of “The Great Gatsby,” it led to an unpublished poem by Sylvia Plath, one of America’s prized poets.

Plath is recognized as one of America’s most important poets of the 20th century. At the age of 8, Plath published her first poem and drawing in Boston newspapers. She continued to develop her writing throughout her education, leaving some of her writings hidden and unpublished.
Sylvia Plath Biography

• Born in Boston in 1932.
• Graduated Smith College in 1955.
• Won a Fulbright Scholarship to Cambridge University.
• Married English poet Ted Hughes.
• Mother of two children, Frieda and Nicholas Hughes.
• Committed suicide in London in 1963.
• Buried in the church yard at Heptonstall, West Yorkshire.
• Recognized as one of America’s most important poets of the 20th century.

Biographical information from Blackbird.
Journey, a graduate student in VCU’s creative writing program, discovered one of Plath’s unpublished pieces after receiving a tip from Bryant Mangum in her literature course on F. Scott Fitzgerald. While she was curious to learn more about Fitzgerald, her true passion was Plath.

Journey, who said she admires Plath’s “practiced grace” and “well crafted sounds” in her poetry, told Mangum about her interest in studying Plath. Mangum, who studied Fitzgerald for his graduate work, knew Plath’s personal copy of Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” was available in the Matthew J. and Arlyn Bruccoli Collection at the University of South Carolina. He also knew the copy came with Plath’s handwritten notes in the margins.

Mangum’s news further piqued Journey’s interest in Plath’s work, and she began pursuing research.

Journal articles revealed Plath wrote “L’Ennui” next to a passage in “The Great Gatsby” where a character, Daisy Buchanan, complains, “I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything.”

Journey located a poem titled “Ennui” in an index of Plath’s “Collected Poems,” but she did not think much of it. She assumed the poem was previously published.

“For weeks I assumed that it was uncollected,” she said.

But Journey was wrong. Plath’s “Ennui” sat between overlooked pages of books in The Lilly Library at Indiana University unnoticed, hardly viewed and never published.

Still interested in the Petrarchan sonnet, she requested copies of the poem. It wasn’t long before a large manila envelope containing two typescripts of Plath’s drafts arrived in Journey’s mailbox.

Wanting to cite the poem for a paper for Mangum, she asked the librarians where the poem had first appeared.

To Journey and the librarian’s surprise, the poem had never appeared in any publication.

“My initial reaction was pleasure,” Journey said. “I never dreamed that I was holding an unpublished sonnet by Sylvia Plath.”

Though Plath never published the poem, scholars believe she meant to publish it one day. They found Plath’s handwritten name and her address at Smith College in the upper right-hand corner of the paper. This is something Plath would do to her poems she deemed good enough for publication. Scholars, however, said it could have been her way of identifying the poem to a college professor.

Either way, all of Journey’s graduate plans changed. She had a new mission and an opportunity to pursue an untouched area of study.

“I was delighted at the possibility of pursuing some original research. The idea of uncovering some new connection about her writing process thrilled me,” she said.

Journey’s joy was contagious. Mangum said Journey’s discovery shone light on a relatively neglected area of study.

“She has made an invaluable contribution to Plath studies,” he said.

After learning that Plath’s poem had never crossed a publisher’s desk, Journey told her English professors and members of Blackbird, VCU’s online journal of literature and the arts. They shared Journey’s excitement.

“I didn’t consider the poem’s unpublished status a secret,” Journey said.

But she wanted to change the status of Plath’s poem to share the work with others.

She wrote a letter to Frieda Hughes, Plath’s daughter and the current executor of the estate of Plath, for first serial publication rights. It’s not an easy process, Mangum said.

“It is difficult to get first serial rights,” he said. “When copyright holders issue first serial publication rights, they are in fact wedding themselves to the journal that they grant these rights to.”

If the rights were granted, they would remain throughout the duration of the copyright, which is typically more than a lifetime. This means every time “Ennui” appears in any other publication, the author would have to cite Blackbird as an indication of its first appearance.

Journey wrote to Hughes about every six months requesting the rights to publish the poem. Nearly two years later, Hughes agreed. VCU’s Blackbird was the first to publish “Ennui.”

Journey chose Blackbird for its “reputation for excellence,” which enjoys a “large international readership.” Blackbird receives over 30,000 visits a month, exceeding most literary journal readerships, Journey said.

“Ennui” is now permanently stored in Blackbird’s archive for researchers accessing digital journals all over the world.

Journey could not be happier. She said the poem written during Plath’s undergraduate years shows the evolution of her poetic genius.

“I believe no poet ever worked harder to become a poet than Sylvia Plath,” she said.

A poem brought from the quiet corners of a library now circulates in cyberspace for undergraduates, researchers, emerging scholars and for those who enjoy poetry-exactly where Journey wanted Plath’s work to be.