She loved both his sense of humour and his inventiveness .sx He made up stories for her about kings and knights and about Snatchcraftington , a wizard who looked like a stalk of rhubarb .sx At the same time he supported her faith in her writing .sx No other woman had ever written poetry like hers , he told her , and with his help she felt certain that within a year she could produce a book of thirty-three poems that would " hit the critics violently " .sx From this new perspective , all previous relationships looked tawdry and insecure .sx Even when she was with Richard Sassoon , an opportunistic mental lawcourt had been in session - hadn't it ?sx - drawing her attention to his weaknesses and proposing alternative men , stronger , healthier .sx Now , for the first time , she felt fully satisfied with the man she had .sx She loved the " virile , deep , banging poems " he'd written , loved relaxing with him at Cambridge .sx Punting on the Cam , they saw cows , baby-owls and even a water-rat ; at Grantchester they picnicked in an orchard .sx When Aurelia came to London in June 1956 , Sylvia and Hughes decided to marry immediately .sx Less than four months had gone by since they'd met , and he didn't tell his parents about the wedding .sx Although it was difficult to get a licence in time , they were married on 16 June at St George's Church in Bloomsbury .sx They chose the day partly because of James Joyce - 16 June is Bloomsday .sx Their witness was the sexton , who'd been on the point of escorting a group of mothers and children on a church outing to the zoo ; they were all kept waiting outside in a bus .sx Hughes was wearing the old black corduroy jacket he wore every day ; Sylvia was in a pink knitted dress her mother had bought for herself but never worn .sx The church was empty , and bathed in the watery-yellow light of a rainy day .sx They spent the summer in Spain , going first to Benidorm , which was still an unspoiled fishing village ; Sylvia did several sketches of it .sx Later they moved inland .sx When they watched a bullfight , her sympathy was with the bulls ; she was pleased when one of them managed to gore a plump picador , who was carried out with blood spurting from his thigh .sx They had to live cheaply .sx In the early morning they went to the market for fish and vegetables , buying potatoes from the stand which sold them at 1.50 a kilo instead of 1.75. They wrote from eight-thirty in the morning till twelve , and again from four till six , studying French and Spanish from eight till ten in the evening .sx Sylvia was still ecstatic at possessing and being possessed by a man who tallied so closely with her fantasies .sx Magnificent , handsome and brilliant were the words she used to describe him ; living with him was like listening to a story that never stopped , or like living in a country that kept on extending its frontiers .sx She could feel his energy pouring directly into her work , and it was an adventure just to buy a loaf of bread or step over goat-droppings .sx But within six weeks of the wedding , quarrels were threatening to capsize their happiness .sx Incredulous at her vulnerability , she felt the hurt " going in , clean as a razor , and the dark blood welling " .sx In the unfamiliar landscape , under the full moon , with crickets chirruping and donkey-bells jangling in the distance , she felt wrongness growing between them and making his skin hard to touch .sx It went on growing till it seemed to fill the house , like a carnivorous plant .sx When he announced he was going out for a walk , she went with him , knowing it would be intolerable to stay alone in the house , but she felt foolish as she strode towards the hills , past the railway station , and when they sat down , it was with a distance between them .sx They walked back in silence and slept separately .sx In the morning it felt as if the house were being choked with wrongness , but their sense of togetherness revived when Hughes found an ant-track and they played with their superiority by lifting the stone above the nest , throwing the colony into confusion .sx To a spider who'd captured two ants they tossed a third , and they gave the ants a big dead fly .sx Generally the habits he'd acquired were quite different from hers .sx He went on wearing the same clothes day after day , apparently untroubled when they were too thick or too thin for the current weather .sx Sometimes he was suspicious of food she gave him , complaining she was trying to kill him with a protein diet .sx Sometimes , when he couldn't find what he was looking for , he accused her of hiding his things or secretly destroying them .sx Sometimes he'd sink into black moods , and when he took his clothes off , he tended to throw them on the floor , while she was always careful in keeping all her things tidy .sx But though she wrote in detail about their life together in the diaries she kept , she speculated remarkably little about what was going on in his mind .sx Sometimes they talked to each other about dreams , but , endlessly interested in her own inner life , she seems to have been uncurious about his .sx Towards the end of August they left for Paris , and when they returned to England in early September , they went to stay in Heptonstall with his parents , who readily forgave him for not telling them about the wedding until he wrote to them from Benidorm .sx They were friendly and welcoming .sx Sylvia describes them as " dear , simple Yorkshire folk " .sx Having spent all their money in Spain and France , she and Hughes stayed in Heptonstall until term began .sx Hughes's Uncle Walt took them in his car to see the Bront e s' Haworth , and they picnicked amongst the heather .sx She reread Wuthering Heights , which helped her to enjoy the wild landscape of bare hills , the deep-creviced valleys and the heather purpling the moorland .sx Wiry and white-haired , Hughes's father was half Irish ; still a tobacconist , he drove every day to his shop in Hebden Bridge , while Hughes's plump , arthritic mother told stories about the neighbours and made starchy pastries and meat pies for her son and her new daughter-in-law , but Sylvia was allowed to do most of the cooking for Hughes and herself in the tiny kitchen .sx One night Hughes took her out to stalk rabbits in the woods , but when he shot a beautiful doe with its young , Sylvia didn't have the heart to take it home to make a stew .sx Back at Cambridge , she kept the wedding a secret :sx having married without permission , she was in danger of being sent down and losing her Fulbright Scholarship .sx But when she confessed , she was forgiven , and at first she and Hughes were happy together , in spite of living in a shabby , depressingly grimy flat which wasn't self - contained :sx they had to share the bathroom with their upstairs neighbour , while soot seemed to be ingrained in everything .sx Domestic surroundings obviously mattered less to Hughes , who'd lived at Cambridge with Lucas Myers in a hut which had once served as a chicken coop and later in a tent in Myers's garden .sx Wendy Campbell , a friend of Dorothea Krook's , was allowed to sit in on Sylvia's supervisions and immediately liked her :sx " she was so alive and warm and interested .sx She seemed to be entirely collected and concentrated and in focus .sx " When she came with Hughes to a party , they were both " smiling and smiling , almost incandescent with happiness .sx .. They seemed to have found solid ground in each other .sx " She'd at last found " a man on the same scale as herself .sx Her vividness demanded largeness , intensity , an extreme " , while he seemed unfettered and unafraid .sx " He didn't care , in a tidy bourgeois sense , he didn't give a damn for anyone or anything .sx " .sx In their flat in Eltisley Avenue they used to get up at five in the morning to write before the day began .sx Sylvia struck Wendy Campbell as having a natural excellence at everything she attempted .sx The flat was well kept , she cooked superbly , and " her very remarkable efficiency " seemed to be " very natural to her and was never accompanied by any sense of strain " .sx In fact there was a great deal of strain , physical and financial , but , like a ballerina who knows how to keep a radiant smile on her face while executing dance steps that involve both anxiety and pain , Sylvia knew how to appear happy and exhilarated .sx Doris Krook ( as she was known in Cambridge ) was amazed at how much marriage had changed her .sx Antonia Byatt , who met her at the beginning of her Cambridge career , found her " very hard to talk to :sx she was very gracious , very deliberately outgoing , almost aggressively an image of the healthy American girl , blonded hair , red mouth , full of bouncy wonder " .sx After Sylvia married , her extreme happiness was unmistakable but almost worrying .sx What would happen , Doris Krook wondered , if anything should go wrong with this marriage ?sx Her fears were allayed by Sylvia's " serenity , her tranquillity , her confidence and ( most of all ) her marvellous vitality which seemed a guarantee of limitless powers of resistance " .sx But Sylvia , who knew these powers weren't limitless , was aware of being dangerously dependent on Hughes .sx Ever since the suicide attempt she'd been struggling to rebuild her identity , making it flexible and strong .sx What she needed was a solid core of self , but everything that constituted her existence had become interwoven with Hughes .sx Within twelve months of meeting him , she found life without him inconceivable .sx She told herself that if she lost him , she'd either go mad or kill herself .sx After spending twenty-five years searching for someone just like him - so she told herself - she knew he was the only man in the world who was right for her .sx Her father's death had pushed her into a symbiotic relationship with her mother ; the suicide attempt had put an end to the symbiosis and Dr Beuscher had become a surrogate for both parents .sx By leaving America Sylvia had lost Dr Beuscher ; Hughes now had to serve as a replacement for father , mother and psychiatrist .sx At first he seemed to be offering all the love and protection Sylvia needed .sx If her life was like a sea , he appeared to be holding it steady and spreading his deep , rich colours through it .sx She focused on him all her capacity for hero-worship , all the adulation she'd lavished on poets such as Auden and on the teachers who'd helped her the most .sx Hughes seemed like a classical god she'd conjured out of the slack water .sx He'd surfaced with his spear shining and rare fish trailing in his wake .sx She'd always been a perfectionist ; now she was committed to perfectionism a-grave deux .sx The balance was going to be precarious .sx For pounds9-10-0 they bought a huge , soiled , second-hand sofa for the living-room , but they were finding it so hard to pay for food , electricity , gas and coal that by the middle of November it looked as if Hughes , who'd been hoping to find work as a teacher , would have to settle for a labouring job .sx Before the end of the month Sylvia had her first meeting with his sister , Olwyn , who came to stay for a weekend on her way from Heptonstall to Paris .sx After taking an arts degree at London University , she'd settled in Paris , doing secretarial work .sx Her relationship with Sylvia was uneasy from the start ; Olwyn , who'd never married , had dominated her younger brother during childhood , and Sylvia formed the impression that as children they'd slept in the same bed .sx Olwyn's attitude to Ted struck her as proprietorial , and , writing to Aurelia , she described her sister-in-law as selfish and extravagant over clothes and cigarettes .sx Not long afterwards , she started sketching out a story about a " diabolical " sister who is jealous of her younger brother's marriage and finds things intolerably different from what they used to be .sx Though it was too late for Hughes to get a Cambridge teaching diploma , he managed to land a job at a day-school for boys , teaching English and helping with sports .sx