Bayard Cousins number 1 or 2 on potential ID list, his mother was a tree biologist. She apparently had a huge fondness for the Persimmon tree, so I see great symbolism there.They are common.
The name "Plaquemines," in French Creole, was derived from the Atakapa word piakimin, meaning the local fruit persimmon. The French used it to name a military post they built on the banks of the Mississippi River, as the site was surrounded by numerous persimmon trees. Eventually the name was applied to the entire parish and to a nearby bayou.
Yes, they are smaller trees and extremely slow growing. Persimmon wood is known as ebony. It is dark and very expensive. It rates up there with teak in price. It is much harder than oak. The fruit of native persimmon is extremely astringent and can cause oral injury unless completely ripe. Raccoons and possums seem to be able to tolerate the fruit better than humans. #PlantOfTheMonth: Persimmon | McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture.
There are non-astringent varieties of more edible persimmons from Asia known as "Japanese persimmon". Japanese persimmon trees are purchased from nurseries. Articles don't indicate whether the tree was native or a Japanese.
persimmon...
MOO: I just don't see a symbolism there...
A while back I said it's like he's trying to tell a story. If I think logically, the suicide note says 'I've been planning this for a year'. I believe everything is symbolic of something and/or someone. This young man was no fool and well read, so I think everything means something but you have to take the location, the letter and his possible name (because who he was gives us a bunch of clues) all into account.
(I too have never heard about the poetry angle, thank you for that because it fits in perfectly)
- he runs away from home a year or so before his death
- he ends up in Louisiana sometime in 1975, I would guess before Mardi Gras
- he uses his last money to get a room at the red roof inn.
- Mardi Gras ended on Feb 11 1975 (don't know which year Plath committed suicide but if before 75 it's very significant)
- I think he's started and stopped on his note for a while, adding bits when he had thought them out (which accounts for the hopping around in the note)
- on the 11th feb he celebrates the end of Mardi Gras and after fat Tuesday, lent begins, that's also significant because the catholics give something up for lent (like a food, meat for example), theologically it's giving up sustenance and it's also fasting. He uses the sheet for Mardi Gras.
- from the 12th to the 15th he finishes his note and finds himself a climable Persimmon tree.
- he waits until late afternoon (Jesus succumbed from the crucifixion in the late afternoon) then he walks in his shoes and socks with his bed sheet and his jar (bringing a pencil, just in case) to the tree.
- he makes a noose of the bed sheet, climbs up and.... He kicks his shoes off as he is..... (I can't say it)
This is my theory and it is only my opinion.