Symplectic integration of separable Hamiltonian ordinary and partial differential equations is discussed. Avon Neumann analysis is performed to achieve general linear stability criteria for symplectic methods applied to a restricted class of Hamiltonian PDEs. In this treatment, the symplectic step is performed prior to the spatial step, as opposed to the standard approach of spatially discretising the PDE to form a system of Hamiltonian ODEs to which a symplectic integrator can be applied. In this way stability criteria are achieved by considering the spectra of linearised Hamiltonian PDEs rather thanspatial step size.