LONDON.- A series of unpublished handwritten poems from Ted Hughes which he wrote in the tragic aftermath of the suicide of his partner Assia Wevill and their daughter Shura in 1969 - just six years after the suicide of his first wife Sylvia Plath - are to be offered at Sotheby’s London Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern sale, open for bidding from 12-19 July. With an estimate of £10,000- 15,000, the materials offer an insight into the overwhelming grief and loss that Hughes experienced.

Wevill and Hughes began an affair in 1962, and this was one of the causes of the breakdown of his marriage to the American poet Sylvia Plath in the summer of that year. Following Plath’s suicide, their relationship continued but was plagued with troubles, from money to Hughes’ lack of commitment. Wevill suffered from depression and in a terrible parallel with Plath’s death, gassed herself in her London flat in March 1969.

Written in Hughes’ personal notebook, in a hurried hand, the poems have come directly through the family. The four pages of verse are written - sometimes illegibly - in ink, and are clearly early drafts, unintended for publication. Their fragmentary and incomplete structure suggests that Hughes found the subject too painful and abandoned the works. They are extensively revised and the beginning and endings of the poems are not always clear.

Hughes addresses his loss and bewilderment in powerfully direct terms. In some poems, he directly acknowledges his dead lover and daughter. He writes, for example, of Shura dressed up and dancing to Bach, unknowing that she was dancing for death. Another poem has at its centre a fern that he had bought for Assia during their initial affair, which has flourished through the tumult of the past years. He writes that the plant still thrives, even thought its owner is now ashes.

The sale includes further interesting items from the Hughes family collection, such as Ted Hughes’ copy of the Cambridge student magazine that led to his first meeting with Plath. Plath was immediately struck after reading Hughes’ poems in St Botolph’s Review from 1956 (estimate £600-800) and as a result attended the magazine’s launch party the same day where they met on the dancefloor. Also up for auction is an inscribed copy of Plath’s first collection, The Colossus and Other Poems (estimate £20,000- 30,000), that Plath gave to her husband. Furthermore, childhood items of Plath’s from her lock of hair as a toddler (estimate £2,000- 3,000) to her stamp collection (estimate £2,000- 3,000) are on offer.

Gabriel Heaton, Director and Specialist in Sotheby’s Books and Manuscripts Department, said: “These series of poems on offer are extraordinary rare examples of Ted Hughes putting some shape on to these tragic events, by expressing himself in poetry, which is of course the way that he naturally expressed himself. It is some of the most direct and personal work Hughes produced about his emotional state that makes for very powerful reading.”