Sylvia Plath collections: Oriel College, Oxford

The library at Oriel College, University of Oxford, holds a typescript of Sylvia Plath's poem "Mayflower." A note in the catalog entry indicates that "Mayflower" was the runner-up for the Lee-Hamilton prize for a Petrarchan sonnet written by an undergraduate of either Oxford or Cambridge. The winner of the competition that year was none other than Kenneth Pitchford. Pitchford was also a Fulbright Scholar but at Oxford, starting the year after Plath in 1956. Readers of Paul Alexander's Rough Magic (pages 197-198) will know this name as Pitchford claims to have met Plath aboard a ship crossing the Atlantic in the fall of 1956 and claims, also, that Plath was returning to England after having an abortion.

This poem dates to 1957, during Plath's final months as a student at Cambridge University. Plath submitted the typescript under her married name, Sylvia Plath Hughes, which is unusual. Only one known publication exists under the name Sylvia Plath Hughes.

"Mayflower" is the 46th poem in Plath's Collected Poems, appearing on page 60. "Mayflower" first appeared in print in the 1971 limited edition book Lyonnesse, published by the Rainbow Press.

The Lee-Hamilton Prize was first awarded in 1947. It is named for Eugene Lee-Hamilton. I would like to thank Marjory Szurko at Oriel College, Oxford, for providing me with a photocopy of the poem, a short history of the Lee-Hamilton Prize, and the information about the winner in 1957.