The Cold Tap Sings

I hadn’t heard Sylvia Plath’s voice until very recently. And how spooky it is. There’s an English inflexion to her American accent; in fact, there are certain words which sound Yorkshire, as if her voice had melded with Ted Hughes’s … I mean, just listen to the way she pronounces “curtains”…!

The recording was made in October 1962, the month of her birthday and a year before her death. I think the video is fantastic, as the uploader’s dark images mirror the poem’s. You can listen to more audio here, or read another birthday poem here.