“Bucolics”: The Pains of the Pastoral

A victim of Minamata Disease. Origin of photo unknown.
On the first of May 1956, “Mayday,” Plath’s beloved Grammy died, leaving her husband, “Grampy” Frank Schober, a widower. That day, BBC News announced that Japan was in the throes of an unknown epidemic creating ataxia, convulsions, paralysis, and more. This condition was identified as Minamata Disease, a condition attacking the nervous system due to mercury poisoning.
“Bucolics” was written on May 5, 1956, and reflects this first day of May, as well as both her grandparents and this disease, first observed in pastoral cows and other animals, as “Bucolics” first stanza reflects (CP, 23). The idea of the barbed wire, the pitchfork, thorn, and stinging nettles all reflect the disease’s itching, burning, and pain. With Minamata Disease, skin peels (“They pitched their coats”), and the contamination was primarily found in water (“where water stood”). Plath hints at Japan with the word “Aslant” for the shape of the Asian eye. She and others seemed to initially suspect that this might be some leftover from the atomic bombs dropped during World War II (“Above: leaf-wraithed white air, white cloud”). Plath called “Bucolics,” a “derivative” poem in her calendar, probably due to its traditional structure and cadence.

1956 POEMS, BBC, BUCOLICS, JAPAN, MERCURY POISONING, MINAMATA DISEASE, PASTORAL, PLATH POEM, PLATH'S EARLY POEMS, SYLVIA PLATH