 Pan statue at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, France
The poem “Ode for Ted” was originally entitled “Poem for Pan,” for the Ancient Greek god of nature and the wild mountains. According to her pocket calendar, Plath began this poem on April 20 and finished it on April 21, 1956. Pan, of course, is the same character as “Faun” or “Faunus,” seen earlier. The “Ode for Ted” title suggests Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” and this is probably not by accident. Beethoven was Hughes’ favorite composer, and “Ode to Joy,” from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, was heard everywhere as the music for the winning German athletes on the Unified Team of Germany (East and West Germans competing together) at the 1956 Olympic Games. It was a historical moment for the world. In 1785, German poet, playwright and historian, Friedrich Schiller, wrote the poem “Ode to Joy,” to accompany Beethoven’s music. The finished ode describes the harmony of God and mankind. Derek Strahan, a friend of both Plath’s and Hughes’ from Cambridge, has published several articles on Beethoven’s mysticism and connection to the Illuminati (Strahan). As Hughes was fascinated with mysticism and the occult, this information would likely not have escaped him about his musical hero. Strahan wrote that the original Schiller poem was called “Ode to Freedom,” and was actually conceived as a poem of gender equality.[1] However, ideas of “Freedom and Liberty” were revolutionary terms in 18th century Germany, and would have been censored. Therefore, words were changed by Schiller’s final draft. Strahan writes of Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”: “The radical message in Schiller’s verse is clear. He not only advocates freedom (joy) but, by invoking subversive, anticlerical pagan imagery (through goddess worship) alludes to the secular Goddess ‘Liberty’ (whose image was already a revolutionary icon, and whose statue today stands in New York Harbour, a gift to the US from the French Government to commemorate the birth of democracy). She is the “Daughter of Elysium,” the Greek name for Paradise. Being a “God descended” means that she will bring Paradise to earth. The “stern customs” which prevent the unity of mankind are the barriers of class. “Music and art are celebrated as weapons in the battle against tyranny. The secret police were present in the audience at the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to ensure that no treason was sung. It was, but they didn’t notice” (Strahan). In that year of 1956, German writer E. Blum published Uber Sigmund Freuds: Der Mann Moses und die Monotheistische Religion. The book drew attention to an essay by Schiller that suggested the Jewish religion grew out of the mystery religions of ancient Egypt (Strahan). We know that Plath owned and had probably read at least one book by Schiller: The Robbers, Fiesco, Love and Intrigue (1893, JC Nimmo Publishers, London). In Plath’s first version of this poem, entitled “Poem for Pan,” she compared Ted Hughes to the devilish Pan and his freedom to create and destroy the world as he sees fit. It is a mirror opposite of Schiller’s poem: Schiller’s gentle-men step across Elysium’s paradise of heaven, doing no harm and worshipping the Creator. Plath’s Pan-man is a god unto himself, naming the creatures and causing crops to yield with merely a look. Plath’s Pan crunches the sprouts on the ground, startles the birds, and stalks the animals. Schiller’s creatures have “gentle wings” and “drink of joy / At nature’s breast” (CP, 29). Plath’s man ravages the land and splits open rocks for their gems. Plath’s last stanza image of “this adam’s woman” is of course not only equating herself with the first woman of the Bible but also to the first human to sin. In a way that is subtly equal to Schiller’s metaphorical art, Plath playfully worships Pan and equality in the guise of an acceptably formal ode. Plath’s first draft, published in Letters Home (LH,238), has only minor revisions from the final published in Collected Poems. Excluding the addition of a stanza break, changes made for sound over meaning (“lagging” becomes “legging”; “hafting” becomes “hefting”; “scent” becomes “scant”). Plath was indeed under Hughes’ spell, in the same way she described his power to enchant animals. Plath declared that owls and hares came when Hughes whistled,[2] a kind of Pied Piper who lured Plath along with the wild creatures he subdued. [1] “Sylvia and Ted – I Was There” 2004 by Derek Strahan. http://www.revolve.com.au/polemic/ted-and-sylvia.html [2] From a letter from Sylvia Plath to Warren Plath, dated April 23, 1956. (LSP: Vol. 1, 1174) 1956 OLYMPIC GAMES, BEETHOVEN, BEETHOVEN'S NINTH SYMPHONY, DEREK STRAHAN, EQUALITY, FAUN, FREEDOM AND LIBERTY, FRIEDRICH SCHILLER, ODE FOR TED, ODE TO JOY, PLATH POEM, POEM FOR PAN, SYLVIA PLATH, TED HUGHES
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