Sheep In Fog

Interpretation of “Sheep in Fog” centers on the completed version from the manuscript solidified at the end of January 1963. Deviations in the final from the original drafts are discussed in Textual Context (See: Literary Context). The body of the poem does not dwell on the domesticated animals mentioned in the title, but consistently acts as a metaphoric exploration of the poet’s fight with despair. The poem is written in Plath’s signature confessional style, unfolding in present tense from the first-person perspective.

While “sheep” literally populate the foggy landscape of the English countryside in which Plath once lived, the image in the title also suggests multiple meanings. “Sheep” are domesticated animals, which may stress Plath’s personal feelings about having to care for her children alone after she and Hughes separated. “Sheep” can be used negatively to denote someone who goes along senselessly, moving through a “fog,” without purpose. “Sheep” may also indicate member/s of a flock desperately in need of a rescuer, especially if they are separated and/or lost. The “fog” itself suggests a blurring of the landscape as low-hanging clouds move in. A sense of doomed negativity hovering over the speaker runs through the poem. Visibility is less clear in a foggy locale. With this deceptively simple title, Plath sets up key aspects of her message.

This sense of low visibility, indicated by the “fog” as well as the white sheep that might be lost in it, is enhanced by the first line of poem, “The hills step off into whiteness” (Line 1), which shows that the slope of the “hills” (Line 1), where they descend, is unknowable. Although the “fields” (Line 12) at the bottom can be imagined, at this point they cannot be seen. This adds to the sense of uncertainty and confusion exhibited by the image of the “sheep in fog.” The poet cannot immediately perceive the entire picture, nor symbolically see her way through it.

Besides the confusion dominating the world she inhabits; Plath also feels abandoned both by those around her and any sense of higher purpose. “People or stars / Regard me sadly, I disappoint them” (Lines 2-3). Here, she feels she has let the “people” (Line 2) around her down. This term is broad enough to include family, friends, as well as audiences. The indication of “I disappoint them” (Line 3) shows Plath feels she’s done something to cause her isolation. She feels she is responsible for “sad[ness]” (Line 3) and “disappoint[ment]” in others. Further, the reference to the “stars” (Line 2) indicates she also feels judged by a higher power like God, or the Fates. Not only has she failed personally, alienating “people” (Line 2), but she has also failed epically, and she is astray from her fated path or purpose. Again, there is a profound sense of feeling off track here.

The next image—“The train leaves a line of breath” (Line 4)—shows a locomotive moving away, the smoke of its engine trailing behind. The speaker is also left, a hint at one of Plath’s most prominent themes throughout her career and her psychotherapy: abandonment. She describes a “slow / Horse the colour of rust” (Lines 5-6), which indicates both the departing “train” (Line 4) as well as a literal “horse” (Line 6) she noted she was riding across the landscape. The reddish coat of the animal cuts through the white landscape to perhaps indicate a severing. Also, there is a breaking down of functionality, shown by the specificity of “rust” (Line 6). The slowness also suggests the lack of surety in knowing where she is going as she leads the horse through the fog.

Plath moves from color to sound and describes the animal’s “hooves” (Line 7) sounding like “dolorous bells” (Line 7). The word “dolorous” (Line 7) means great sorrow or distress, so the “bells” (line 7) combined here with the word “slow” (Line 5) suggest dirge-like notes. This is enhanced by the description that takes place after the long dash of Line 7. “All morning the / morning has been blackening” (Lines 8-9). Quite literally, the fog is getting heavier so that it blocks out the sun, but this also hints at the sinking of the speaker’s emotions. Further, the double use of the word “morning” (Lines 8, 9) works like a repetitive “bell” (Line 7) from the previous image, causing readers to think subliminally of the homonym of mourning, as in a funeral.

Plath then adds to the description of death and dying after the stanza break. The “morning has been blackening / A flower left out” (Line 10). A “flower” (Line 10) without care or with too much exposure, will wilt and then crumple. Its petals also darken in the process. These images specify that the feeling of being lost and abandoned during this particularly “morning” (Lines 8, 9) is rapidly headed into a feeling of disaster and oblivion.

The “I” returns in the penultimate stanza as Plath notes, “My bones hold a stillness, the far” (Line 10). This calls attention to the depth of the problem, which is felt in the “bones” (Line 10). While the end of the line will be enjambed into “fields melt my heart” (Line 12), the break Plath employs at the end of Line 10 suggests that the body is static in the present but also in “the far” (Line 10), or the future. In other words, it is hard for the speaker to see into the future hopefully. The unknown “fields” (Line 12) are longed for, but Plath wants to believe the “fields” (Line 12) are safe, even if she cannot see them through the “fog.” These seemingly happier “fields” (Line 12) “threaten” (Line 13) Plath. They could, she notes, “let me through to a heaven” (Line 14). Whatever the “far / fields” (Lines 11-12) hold might offer salvation, but they “threaten” (Line 13) to only lead to an eternity of suffering.

The “heaven” (Line 13) or afterlife, Plath guesses, might be “starless and fatherless” (Line 15). She may drown in its “dark water” (Line 15), a complete obliteration. This end line’s image harkens back to the “[p]eople or stars / [who] regard me sadly” (Line 2) earlier in the poem. In the “dark water” (Line 15) of this afterlife, there would not even be “stars” (Line 2) or “people” (Line 2). Here, Plath will be “fatherless” (Line 15), a lost sheep without a human or spiritual shepherd, sinking into a void. The poem ends in this bleak manner, showing how the depressive thoughts caused by the uncertainty of the fog intensify.