An American poet and writer, born in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, and one of the figures credited with advancing confessional poetry, a style using direct, personal address that she developed alongside Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton in a Boston writing seminar. Her works include The Colossus and Other Poems (1960), the novel The Bell Jar (1963, first published under the pen name Victoria Lucas) and the posthumous collection Ariel (1965). She married the poet Ted Hughes in 1956. Plath died in London on 11 February 1963. Her Collected Poems was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1982, nineteen years after her death. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
AwardPulitzer Prize for Poetry (1982, posthumous, for The Collected Poems) 1 Classification
Original Language Connections
In Genre
The Bell Jar already in-genre The Novel; Plath herself carried no in-genre edge to it. Her Ariel/Lyric Poetry pairing was checked and not written; her own article does not call her or Ariel lyric poetry in so many words.
Source Sylvia Plath (Wikipedia)
In Movement
Developed the style alongside Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton in Lowell's Boston University seminar; one of the movement's most widely read poets.
Source Sylvia Plath (Wikipedia)
Works Attributed
Ariel, Works Source Ariel (poetry collection) (Wikipedia)
Source The Bell Jar (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: United States, nationality there.
- Also in Language Atlas: English, original language there.
Sources
1. Sylvia Plath (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Boston University seminar section, confessional poetry
Within this seminar, Plath, Lowell and Sexton, whilst starting with very different writing styles, each gravitated towards a new style of poetry dubbed confessional for its use of personal experience and its tendency to use a direct form of address.
Career and marriage section, Bell Jar pseudonym
The Bell Jar was published in January 1963 under the pen name Victoria Lucas
Early life section, birthplace
Plath was born on October 27, 1932, in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts.
Final depressive episode and death section
She died by suicide at age 30 in London on February 11, 1963.
opening biographical summary, Pulitzer Prize
For this collection Plath was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1982
Original language statement
Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932, February 11, 1963) was an American poet and author.
In Genre: The Novel, Lead section, Bell Jar novel
She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and her works include The Colossus and Other Poems (1960), Ariel (1965), and The Bell Jar (1963), a semi-autobiographical novel published one month before her suicide.
In Genre: The Novel, Works section, only novel
Her only novel, The Bell Jar, was published in January 1963 under the pen name Victoria Lucas
View the Source The Bell Jar (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Works Attributed: The Bell Jar, Lead, roman a clefQuote, Works Attributed: The Bell Jar, Lead, roman a clef
The protagonist's descent into mental illness parallels Plath's own experiences with what may have been clinical depression.
Ariel (poetry collection) (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Works Attributed: Ariel, Lead, editorialQuote, Works Attributed: Ariel, Lead, editorial
Ted Hughes, Plath's widower and the editor of Ariel, made substantial changes to her intended plan for the collection by changing her ordering of the poems, dropping some pieces, and adding others.
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