Two Campers in Cloud Country In this country

Two Campers in Cloud Country

In this country there is neither measure nor balance To redress the dominance of rocks and woods, The passage, say, of man-shaming clouds. No gesture of yours or mine could catch their attention, No word make them carry water or fire the kindling Like local trolls in the spell of a superior being. Derogatory SUBLIME The human means of imposing on nature doesn’t exist here. Nature cannot be quantified or controlled. Nature is superior to the man made world. Nothing created by man could ever be more significant than the nature world.

Mockingly formal. Wishes to distance herself from society. Well one wearies of the Public Gardens: one wants a vacation Where trees and clouds and animals pay no notice; Away from the labelled elms, the tame tea-roses. Longs to be ignored and escape the order of the human world. It took three days of driving north to find a cloud The polite skies over Boston couldn’t possibly accommodate. Here on the last frontier of the big, brash spirit Scale of the natural world. Nature is too pure to be found somewhere like the city.

The horizons are too far off to be chummy as uncles; The colours assert themselves with a sort of vengeance. Each day concludes in a huge splurge of vermilions Lack of control And night arrives in one gigantic step. It’s comfortable, for a change, to mean so little. These rocks offer no purchase to herbage or people; They are conceiving a dynasty of perfect cold. In a month we’ll wonder what plates and forks are for. I lean to you, numb as a fossil. Tell me I’m here. The natural world will force them to become accustomed to their surroundings, they have the power to mould them in this way. Attempts to turn herself into a part of the earth/landscape as she sees them as something admirable and superior to humans. Lack of connection with nature. She is rejected here. Assonance echoes the vastness and scale of nature. Consistently untouched and cold in their isolation.

The Pilgrims and Indians might never have happened. Planets pulse in the lake like bright amoebas; The pines blot our voices up in their latest sighs. Around our tent old simplicities sough Sleepily as Lethe, trying to get in. We’ll wake blank-brained as water in the dawn. Reborn into another life, purer than the last. Personifies the natural world, portrays their magical qualities and the alliteration mimics the sound of a heartbeat. The trees silence them. Dissolution of self – the idea that the natural world leaves her clear minded.

• ‘man-shaming clouds’ – Plath sees nature as something beautiful and far superior to anything created by humans. • ‘The big, brash spirit’- portrays the dominance of the natural world. The alliteration of the ‘b’ has a sense of power and strength. • Reference to the ‘Pilgrims and Indians’ portrays the idea that nature would not have played a role in such a brutal time in history and showing its purity compared to the harshness of humans. • ‘tame tea-roses’ • ‘labeled elms’ • ‘polite skies’ The speaker sees the human world as artificial and monotonous and seeks an escape from this sense of order.

Human Impact on Nature • ‘last frontier’ – Humans have dominated the natural world, this is the only place left untouched by humans. • ‘the colours assert themselves with a sort of vengeance’ – Nature fights back against the interference of humans as though it understands the negative impact humans impose. • ‘huge splurge of vermilions’ – ‘splurge’ has connotations of the luxuriousness of nature and worth beyond anything of the human world. It is as though this is nature’s last gasp. • ‘These rocks offer no purchase to herbage or people’ – the landscape no longer allows itself to be taken advantage of and fights to reclaim the power that humans have destroyed.

• In comparison to Plath’s other poems, she seems to be seeking a sense of refuge that comes with the isolation of nature. • ‘No gesture of yours or mine could catch their attention’ and ‘It’s comfortable for a change to mean so little’ show the pleasure she takes in being so insignificant. She has left behind the responsibilities of society behind. • However, there is a change of tone in stanza 7 as she says, ‘Tell me I’m here’ looking for reassurance and support. She no longer seems to be content being just an unnoticed observer.

This is a beautiful poem, bringing to light the refreshing vitality of the wilderness, showing the great relief which comes with being unoticed, being an oberserver, being in the presence of greatness far more grand then oneself. The poem briliantly shows nature's power, far exceeding that of man.