Often, however, he was more subtle in his effects. In "Sam," for instance, the stanzaic breaks give the text a clear structure, with the very short final stanza adding a definite bite to the poem. The longer first stanza tells the story of Plath on a runaway horse, this is then commented upon and analyzed, and finally Hughes draws a four-line comparison to the way he was treated by Plath: "you strangled me... flung yourself off and under my feet." The abrupt turn and end of this poem is used to elicit a specific response of shocked sympathy from the reader, which marks only one of Hughes attempts in Birthday Letters to exonerate himself for Plath's suicide.

Neither of the two above-mentioned poems are entirely consistent in tone, however, and the length of their lines and/or stanzaic structure can of course be read in several ways. In "The Shot," however,...
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