...
Anyway, so back to Ariel. Written as her final bout of poetry before she killed herself in 1963, and published post-humously by her husband. It is not easy reading by any means, it is dark, often ironic and humorous but ultimately disturbing.
These poems are autobiographical, so don't ... Read review
Sylvia Plath churned out her final poems at the remarkable rate of two or three a day, ... more
masterworks Robert Lowell describes as written by "hardly a person at all...but one of those super-real, hypnotic, great classical heroines." Even more remarkabl...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Sylvia Plath churned out her final poems at the remarkable rate of two or three a day, ... more
masterworks Robert Lowell describes as written by "hardly a person at all...but one of those super-real, hypnotic, great classical heroines." Even more remarkabl...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Sylvia Plath churned out her final poems at the remarkable rate of two or three a day, ... more
masterworks Robert Lowell describes as written by "hardly a person at all...but one of those super-real, hypnotic, great classical heroines." Even more remarkabl...
Postage & Packaging: refer to website Availability: Free!
Sylvia Plath churned out her final poems at the remarkable rate of two or three a day, ... more
masterworks Robert Lowell describes as written by "hardly a person at all...but one of those super-real, hypnotic, great classical heroines." Even more remarkable, she wrote them during one of the coldest, snowiest winters (1962-63) Londoners have ever known. Snowbound, without central heating, she and her two children spent much of their time sniffling, coughing, or running temperatures (In "Fever 103°" she writes, "I have been flickering, off, on, off on. / The sheets grow heavy as a lecher's kiss."). Pipes froze, lights failed, and candles were unobtainable. As if these physical privations weren't enough, Plath was out in the cold in another sense--her husband, Ted Hughes, had left her for another woman earlier that year. Despite all this (or perhaps because of it), the Ariel poems dazzle with their lyricism, their surprising and vivid imagery, and their wit. Rather than confining herself to her bleak surroundings, Plath draws from a wide array of experience. In "Berck-Plage," for instance, clouds are "electrifyingly-coloured sherbets, scooped from the freeze." In "The Night Dances," the poet stands crib-side, revelling in her son's own brand of do-si-do: "Such pure leaps and spirals--Surely they travel / The world forever, I shall not entirely / Sit emptied of beauties, the gift / Of your small breath..." Though at times they present the reader with hopelessness laid bare, these poems also teem with the brightest shards of a life, confounding those who merely look for the words of a gloomy, dispassionate suicide. Plath rose each morning in the final months of her life to "that still blue, almost eternal hour before the baby's cry" and left us these words like "axes/After whose stroke the wood rings..." --Martha Silano
Postage & Packaging:refer to website Availability:Check Site.
"We have grown accustomed to confession", writes Erica Wagner at the very beginning ... more
ofAriel's Gift, an extensive commentary on Ted Hughes' acclaimedBirthday Letters, published in the last year of his life in 1998. Exploring the powerful image of the destructive, and poetic, couple through the life and writing of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, Wagner situatesBirthday Lettersas a type of conversation: Hughes' engagement with the legacy of his wife's poetry as well as her suicide, his "return" to Plath's writing--her titles, words, phrases haunting his--as well as the drama of her life.In this sense,Ariel's Giftis suspended between two traditions of reading, tracing both the literary dialogue between poets and poems and the life--the biographical, and personal, incident--that goes into the writing. Responding to the lure of Plath's intense, even selfless, exposé of self in her writing, as well as to what was felt to be Hughes's breaking of his 30-year silence about their relationship, Wagner provides a chronological account of the relationship between the two poets--an account which then frames her readings of the poems included inBirthday Letters. This is not, however, an attempt to reduce lyric poetry to personal experience. Wagner's reading is always alert to the ways in which Hughes is (re)working Plath's poetry and sensitive to fact that the "memory of Sylvia Plath, and her legacy, does not belong solely to Hughes". Read as a dialogue not only with Plath but with the broader cultural controversy which surrounds his relationship to Plath's work, Wagner explores the complex texture ofBirthday Lettersas Hughes's final tribute to a unique poetry. --Vicky Lebeau
Postage & Packaging:£2.75 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
It is difficult to read Sylvia Plath, one of the finest poets of the 20th century, without ... more
the knowledge and half-knowledge of her life and death intruding and cementing meaning on to her work. This, her second collection, published posthumously in 1965, contains some of her most fabulously versatile and energetic verse despite her preoccupation with death which is often as theatrical as it is agonising. The volume begins as she wanted with "Morning Song", a colourful, rich poem to her baby: "Love set you going like a fat gold watch". In it, she sees herself as "cow-heavy and floral in my Victorian nightgown", contrasting beautifully with the child's mouth which "opens clean as a cat's". She need not mention milk. The "clear vowels" of the baby's cries "rise like balloons", re-emphasising the lightness and playful joy she could experience through motherhood. "Night Dances", about the "pure leaps and spirals" her son performed in bed before laying down, comfort her. "Surely they travel / The world forever, I shall not entirely / Sit emptied of beauties, the gift / Of your small breath, the drenched grass / Smell of your sleep, lilies, lilies." The risky, running images and associations are breathtaking, still. There is something redemptive in her love for her child which eases her anguish. "The blood blooms clean / In you, ruby. / The pain / you wake to is not yours ... You are the one / Solid the spaces lean on, envious." Her infamous poems "Lady Lazarus" and "Daddy" are also here. In both, the first person narrator is a persona, a fiction that overlaps with autobiography. Plath once explained that "Lady Lazarus" is "a woman who has the great and terrible gift of being reborn. The only trouble is, she has to die first." Deeply sardonic in tone, she has the levity of Dorothy Parker in moments. "Dying is an art, like everything else. / I do it exceptionally well." But there is resurgence after melt-down: "Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air." Anger with her father, characterised as a Nazi, Herr Enemy extends in "Daddy". "Daddy, I have had to kill you. / You died before I had time-- / Marble-heavy, a bag full of God." It remains a staggering and disturbing poem in which she imagines herself the daughter of a Nazi and a Jew. Plath would have preferred to end the collection with "Wintering", a less contorted poem about storing honey from her beehive. It ends hopefully: "The bees are flying. They taste the spring." Often puzzling or plainly obtuse, Plath's all the better for that. --Cherry Smyth
Postage & Packaging:refer to website Availability:Check Site.
Advantages: Beautiful, an insight into a troubled mind Disadvantages: Not easy reading, overflowing with bitterness and pain
.../>
My favourite poem in Ariel has to be 'Lady Lazarus'. It tells the story of a women who goes repeatedly through the agony of being reborn every time she kills herself. It is this blunt admission of Plath's desire to die that makes this poem so real and so harrowing.
'It's the theatrical
Comeback in broad day
To the same place, the same face, the same brute
Amused shout.'
She is bored ... ...die. Her world is a theatre show and she is just a character, detached from the action which the 'Peanut-crunching crowd' view through their voyeuristic eyes. It is all the 'same', nothing changes, she is sick of plodding through life, death clearly seems more attractive.
This image is beautiful and so sadly bitter. I believe Plath knew she was going to die here, she wrote these poems in a frenzy, she was alive with the thought of ... more
Sylvia Plath gets a bad time of it from most people. She's often seen as having written the most depressing novel ever in the form of 'The Bell Jar', and as the catalyst for many teenager's suicidal angst.
However, the woman was ill, and she was married to an adulterous scoundrel in the form of Ted Hughes. For anyone interested in Plath, it is well worth reading Hughes' 'Birthday Letters', a collection of 88 poems mainly about Plath, and their relationship. Bit off topic but they convey another side to her story. It definitely dispells some of the myths and mystery surrounding her status as a lamenting depressive, as well as displaying Hughes' raw emotions; not only love and awe but anger and bitterness. In a sad way, anyone married to Plath would have been tempted to seek comfort elsewhere in the midst of her frightening disdain for life.
Anyway, so back to Ariel. Written as her final bout of poetry before she killed herself in 1963, and published post-humously by her husband. It is not easy reading by any means, it is dark, often ironic and humorous but ultimately disturbing.
These poems are autobiographical, so don't expect them to be full of flowers and pretty images. They tell stories of suicide, of love, motherhood and being a daughter... amongst other random topics. One of my favourites is 'Cut'. It is simple, it describes Sylvia cutting open her thumb:
What a thrill ---- My thumb instead of an onion. The top quite gone Except for a sort of a hinge
Of skin, A flap like a hat, Dead white. Then that red plush.
She had the knack of detaching herself from situations, to step back and objectify, but somehow turn the monotony of everyday occurence into something magical and strange. There is a beauty in her madness, a disturbing undercurrent, a fascination with the bizzare. To describe the event as calmly as though she had cut open an onion never ceases to amaze me. There is no sense of panic at the blood. It becomes a 'bottle / of pink fizz., 'red' against the white of the gauze which she calls the 'Ku Klux Klan'. This controlled truth, this ability to separate herself from her emotions, is what makes Plath so compelling.
My favourite poem in Ariel has to be 'Lady Lazarus'. It tells the story of a women who goes repeatedly through the agony of being reborn every time she kills herself. It is this blunt admission of Plath's desire to die that makes this poem so real and so harrowing.
'It's the theatrical
Comeback in broad day To the same place, the same face, the same brute Amused shout.'
She is bored with life, she is bored with not being able to die. Her world is a theatre show and she is just a character, detached from the action which the 'Peanut-crunching crowd' view through their voyeuristic eyes. It is all the 'same', nothing changes, she is sick of plodding through life, death clearly seems more attractive.
This image is beautiful and so sadly bitter. I believe Plath knew she was going to die here, she wrote these poems in a frenzy, she was alive with the thought of death. Her candid descriptions of her own suicide attempts run through this poem, she has no care for the shock that the reader feels, she is simply being honest. I love that about these poems, they do not attempt to protect the reader, but that is also what makes them so explosive and potentially dangerous.
I am not going to analyse these poems for you, or go through them all. I just want to say that they are worth reading. I have given you an idea of their shock factor, their brutality, now it is up to you as a reader to decide for yourself.
Advantages: Deep, colourful work Disadvantages: Can be hard 'to get into'
...Quite a few of the Ariel poems can be associated with death and dying or depressive behaviour (Lady Lazarus being the most famous example of this), Dying Is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I've a call. which makes Plath's poetry ( especially Ariel) very popular 'depression culture' reading. Not that's it's all doom and gloom - there are a few ... ...from feeling helplessly suicidal. What I find the most attractive aspect of her writing is the unique use of metaphor - a juxtaposition of precious words which somehow have managed to tell it like it is - display those personal moments on paper which you always knew exisited, but never thought could be expressed. What a thrill?? My thumb instead of an onion. The top quite gone Except for a sort of a hinge Of skin, A flap like a hat, Dead white. Then ...
joolzroolz 24.06.2001
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Ariel - Sylvia Plath
Advantages: Easy to read Disadvantages: too thoughtful and melancholy for some
I really enjoyed reading this collection of poetry. Plath has a graphic imagination evident in poems such as 'Cut' and her imagery is at times explicit but so apt. 'Morning song' is yet another beautiful poem. The title plays upon the two seperate meanings of 'morning' and 'mourning'. Describing a mother's feelings after birth, Plath describes her as 'cow heavy' using the image of the lactating mother and effortlessly transferring it to the accurate ... ...Plath's poetry is as intriguing as her life. People might suggest her poetry is depressing and such but i urge you to read it. She has such a way with words. Also i would highly recommend reading 'The Bell Jar'. A fascinating insight into the world of insanity through the eyes of a young girl. ...
Kickboxer22 30.04.2008
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Ariel - Sylvia Plath
Advantages: pathos, dark work of some considerable magnitude Disadvantages: its painful
Ariel
Ariel
Lady lazarus and others combine to make this spellbinding work painful to the human psyche with its discusion of pathos and suffering.
Plath is sadly dead, but the strength of her work continues to inspire,..
Read this. Weep. Read this. Smile. Such is the emotion of the greatest poet of the 20th century
All that I can suggest is you read Lady Lazarus.. 'the tulips are too red, they bleed'
Feel the rawness of a tortured mind, revel ...
PaulVerrico 28.05.2001
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Ariel - Sylvia Plath
Advantages: Very deep and meaningful Disadvantages: Takes a lot of effort
When I first picked up this book in the shop, I thought to myself, 'Ah, some nice relaxing poetry', but once I got it home I realised this wasn't the case! As a keen poet myself, this book has been very useful, it is very inspiring and the quality of the poetry is absolutely fantastic! It does, however, require a lot of hard work on the part of the reader. I had to read each poem several times before discovering the true meaning of it, but they are ...
Alican 06.07.2004
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Ariel - Sylvia Plath
Similar reviews »
Reviews which might be of interest for "Ariel - Sylvia Plath"
Advantages: great collection with loots of depth Disadvantages: none
feminist influences within her work.
1 ‘Winter Trees’ by SylviaPlath.
2 ‘SylviaPlath’ by S. Bassnett. (Pg 114)
3 http://www.slflannery.freeserve.co.uk/godiva/index.html
4 ‘SylviaPlath’ by S. Bassnett. (Pg 96)
5 ‘SylviaPlath’ by S. Bassnett. (Pg 96)
6 From another poem: ‘Ariel’.
7 From another poem: ‘Tulips’.
8 ‘SylviaPlath: Selected Poems’ by York Notes Pg 53
9 ‘Winter Trees’ by SylviaPlath.
10 ‘The Colossus’ by SylviaPlath.
11 ‘Crossing the Water’ by SylviaPlath.
Finally, a comment on winter trees: this selection is excellent but should be read in conjunction with her other poems. There are lots of fabulous collections out there! ...
These poems are, in Robert Lowells' words, "events rather than the record of events, and as such, represent the triumph of the poet's romantic ambition". See all Product Description
Compare Ariel - Sylvia Plath to other similar Poetry »
![Piano Com Tom Jobin [Digipak] - Marcos Ariel](http://imagesb.ciao.com/iuk/images/products/small/001/Piano_Com_Tom_Jobin_Digipak_Marcos_Ariel__6629001.jpg)
