Red

‘Red’, as the final poem in Birthday Letters, acts as Hughes’ final statement on his relationship with Plath. It responds directly to Plath’s poems ‘Lady Lazarus’ and ‘Nick and the Candlestick’ due to its thematic concerns of motherhood, mental illness, and the nature of Hughes and Plath’s marriage. Hughes employs colour symbolism throughout the poem to represent Plath’s descent into psychosis and its toll on their relationship.