 “Prospect” is an interesting short poem that seems to address the fraudster and suspected serial killer, Doctor John Bodkin Adams. Adams lived in Eastbourne, Sussex, a town of “orange-tile rooftops / and chimney pots” on the coastal area known as Beachy Head, where “the fen fog slips” (CP, 28). Dreadnought clay roof tiles, dreadnought meaning either a British battleship or a heavy overcoat for stormy weather (Oxford), dot the English countryside, and their pink and orange roof colors have defined England since Roman times, especially in England’s eastern and southeastern counties, where Adams lived. A chimney pot is British slang for a men’s silk dress hat, worn by the upper-crust of society.
Adams was a doctor to the aristocracy, and lived grandly himself as the wealthiest General Practitioner in England at the time. He was arrested on December 19, 1956 and charged with murder. In “Prospect,” Plath gets the most mileage out of the word “rooks,” playing upon its meanings of con artists, of castles, and the black bird of death. Adams’ trial established the legal doctrine of “double effect,” explaining the two black rooks. From 1946 to 1956, Adams had found 132 wealthy patients near death and got them to leave generous endowments to him (“cocked on the lone, late, / passer-by”). DOCTOR DEATH, DOCTOR JOHN BODKIN ADAMS, EARLY POEM, FRAUD, FRAUDSTER, GENERAL PRACTITIONER, MURDERER, PLATH POEM, PROSPECT, SERIAL KILLER, SYLVIA PLATH
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