Sylvia Plath’s grave, Hepenstall Cemetery, UK on 12th August 2025 – by Tash Walker
“On the morning of the second day whilst at Arvon Lumb Bank writers’ retreat I walked up the steep hill cow-heavy to Hepenstall Cemetery where Sylvia Plath is buried. I recorded my footsteps crossing the cemetery and the sounds that surrounded me whilst stood at her grave. I was so struck by the life, insects, birds, a lawn mower and at one point an aeroplane which on the recording sounds like something much more supernatural. On her grave there are some words that Ted Hughes chose to have engraved, they are not Sylvia’s but another writer’s. As I stood and listened, and witnessed, I was reminded of some of her own words from her poem Tulips”
“I didn’t want any flowers, I only wanted
To lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty.
How free it is, you have no idea how free——”
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