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Crossing the Water

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First edition (UK)

Crossing the Water is a 1971 posthumous collection of poetry by Sylvia Plath that was prepared for publication by Ted Hughes. These are transitional poems that were written along with the poems that appear in her poetic opus, Ariel. The collection was published in the United Kingdom by Faber & Faber (1975) and in the United States by Harper & Row (1976).

The poems here, mostly written between 1960 and 1961, tend to dwell on one's state of being in an environment. "Wuthering Heights," for example, details a walk that Plath takes along the Yorkshire moors where Emily Brontë once trekked, Finisterre is a stormy island where Plath and her family once visited and "Among the Narcissi" describes Plath's similarities with being among asexual vegetation.[citation needed]

Contents

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  1. Wuthering Heights
  2. Pheasant
  3. Crossing the Water
  4. Finisterre
  5. Face Lift
  6. Parliament Hill Fields
  7. Insomniac
  8. An Appearance
  9. Blackberrying
  10. I Am Vertical
  11. The Babysitters
  12. In Plaster
  13. Leaving Early
  14. Stillborn
  15. Private Ground
  16. Heavy Woman
  17. Widow
  18. Magi
  19. Candles
  20. Event
  21. Love Letter
  22. Small Hours
  23. Sleep in the Mojave Desert
  24. The Surgeon at 2 a.m.
  25. Two Campers In Cloud Country
  26. Mirror
  27. A Life
  28. On Deck
  29. Apprehensions
  30. Zoo Keeper's Wife
  31. Whitsun
  32. The Tour
  33. Last Words
  34. Among the Narcissi