Examine the ways in which Plath presents nature in her poetry.

In Plath's poetry, nature is presented in increasingly threatening ways. In 'Wuthering Heights', nature seems to 'funnel her heat away' and the grasses invite her to 'whiten' her bones 'among them', reflecting Plath's own sense of unease with herself and her depression. The use of inter-textual references to Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights' 'heightens' this threatening atmosphere as the reference to a traditionally Gothic text, as well as her anthropomorphic presentation of nature (sheep as old women, the air moans 'black stone, black stone') creates a distinct person vs. nature impression.
As a transatlantic poet (moving from America to England), Plath also feels this lack of belonging to the area in which she lives, possibly exacerbated by her deteriorating marriage to Hughes. In 'The Bee Meeting', Plath directly places herself as a vulnerable subject; she is 'nude as a chicken neck', this analogy suggests weakness as the chicken neck will be cut for slaughter, and she asks 'does nobody love me?', whereas the villagers in the poem are remote and distant people, reflecting her lack of connection with her surroundings. The people in this poem along with nature are placed in threatening positions; they lead her through a 'beanfield', and she is presented as a passive subject, the 'gorse' hurts her, and the villagers are presented as murderers, they untie their 'disguises', and Plath asks what they have 'accomplished' with the 'long white box in the grove', which is possibly an image of a coffin. Here we see the conjunction of people and nature against Plath, and both are malicious forces in her poetry. The lack of correct punctuation in her questions; 'whose is that long white box in the grove, what have they accomplished, why am I cold.' presents Plath's sense of panic at nature, and in turn, her lack of connection to the area where she is a 'foreigner'.