Naturalism and Human Connection in "Two Campers in Cloud Country" Anonymous 12th Grade

Although raised near the ocean and fascinated by the power of nature, Sylvia Plath spent most of her life in the suburbs and the city. In July 1960, however, she and Ted Hughes went camping for a week in Rock Lake, Canada. Not only was she with her husband away from the constant pressures of writing and teaching, but she hadn't ever been quite so far from the civilized world she was used to before. Her reaction was therefore understandably intense. These sentiments were reflected in "Two Campers in Cloud Country," which describes the new world Plath discovered in Canada, utterly separate from the respectable (and by some accounts prissy) life she had previously led in the American suburbs.

Plath's descriptions of the lake and the life behind her create two distinct worlds, as she differentiates between the tame city with its concrete details, and the wild country with almost magical possibilities. The first line of the poem reads, "In this country there is neither measure nor balance," suggesting that the rules she is so accustomed to no longer apply. Rather than the customary restrictions that accompanies her status as a woman in the mid-twentieth century, there is a profound sense of freedom. Instead of diminutive "labeled...