Literature Atlas

How Stories Are Told
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Work

Ariel

Poetry

A poetry collection by the American poet Sylvia Plath, published by Faber and Faber in London in 1965, two years after her death by suicide, and considered the central book of her reputation as a confessional poet. Its title poem and others, including Daddy and Lady Lazarus, were written in the last months of her life in a burst of productivity during the autumn of 1962. Plath's husband, the poet Ted Hughes, edited the book after her death and made substantial changes to the collection she had left arranged in a careful sequence of her own, dropping some poems, adding others written later and reordering the whole so that it read differently from what she had planned; a version closer to her own intended arrangement was published decades later as Ariel: The Restored Edition. The poems' unflinching treatment of rage, death and the self helped define confessional poetry for a generation of readers. 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
Composed, From (Year)
1965 1
Connections

Authored By

Sylvia Plath, Authors
Source Ariel (poetry collection) (Wikipedia)

In Genre

Lyric Poetry, Genres
Source Ariel (poetry collection) (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Ariel (poetry collection) (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)
  • Lead, opening
    It was first released in 1965, two years after her death by suicide.
  • Reception section
    The fact remains that Plath herself had arranged the future Ariel poems 'in a careful sequence,' plotting out every detail including the first and last words of the volume.
  • Authored By: Sylvia Plath, 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.
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.