Sheep in Fog
The hills step off into whiteness. People or stars Regard me sadly, I disappoint them. The train leaves a line of breath. O slow Horse the colour of rust, Hooves, dolorous bells - All morning the Morning has been blackening, A flower left out. My bones hold a stillness, the far Fields melt my heart. They threaten To let me through to a heaven Starless and fatherless, a dark water.
Sheep in Fog - context Summary
Published in Ariel, 1965
Published posthumously in the 1965 Ariel collection, "Sheep in Fog" frames a brief, bleak scene of whiteout and indistinct figures where the speaker feels isolated and disappointing to others. Sparse, urgent images—the train, a rust-colored horse, melting fields—suggest emotional paralysis and a threatened passage toward a cold, solitary afterlife. The poem resonates with themes of despair and alienation that recur in Plath's later work.
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