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Ariel - Sylvia Plath

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Ariel - Sylvia Plath

... 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

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Ariel - 057123609X

Ariel - 057123609X

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...

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Ariel - 0571086268

Ariel - 0571086268

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...

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Ariel by Sylvia Plath

Ariel by Sylvia Plath

Ariel by Sylvia Plath ISBN: 9780571086269

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Ariel - Sylvia Plath

Ariel - Sylvia Plath

Ariel

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Ariel - Sylvia Plath

Ariel - Sylvia Plath

Ariel

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Ariel Restored Edition - Sylvia Plath

Ariel Restored Edition - Sylvia Plath

5/4/07 This facsimile edition restores, for the first time, the selection and arrangements ... more

of the poems Sylvia Plath left at the point of her
death. With a foreword by Frieda Hughes.

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Faber Poetry Mug Sylvia Plath Ariel

Faber Poetry Mug Sylvia Plath Ariel

One of a series of 4 collectable Faber and Faber mugs in the Poetry range. Faber and Faber ... more

52 Playing cards also available from ILLUSTRATED
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Ariel - Plath, Sylvia Book

Ariel - Plath, Sylvia Book

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Closer Look at Ariel: Memory of Sylvia Plath - Nancy Hunter Steiner

Closer Look at Ariel: Memory of Sylvia Plath - Nancy Hunter Steiner

Pages: 88, Paperback, Faber and Faber


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Revising Life: Sylvia Plath's Ariel Poems (Gender and American Culture) - 080784487X

Revising Life: Sylvia Plath's Ariel Poems (Gender and American Culture) - 080784487X

Pages: 224, Paperback, The University of North Carolina Press


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Ariel's Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and the Story of Birthday Letters - Erica Wagner

Ariel's Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and the Story of Birthday Letters - Erica Wagner

Ariel's Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and the Story of Birthday Letters


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Ariel: The Restored Text - Sylvia Plath

Ariel: The Restored Text - Sylvia Plath

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


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Ariel's Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and the Story of "Birthday Letters" - 0571205267

Ariel's Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and the Story of "Birthday Letters" - 0571205267

"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


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Ariel (Faber Pocket Poetry S.) - Sylvia Plath

Ariel (Faber Pocket Poetry S.) - Sylvia Plath

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


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Reviews of Ariel - Sylvia Plath »

1-5 of 5 reviews of Ariel - Sylvia Plath

A cloak of darkness underneath the myth

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

princess_lu 12.02.2006
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Ariel - Sylvia Plath

Readability

Would you read it again?

How does it compare to ...

How does it compare to ...

Subjective reality

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

'Ariel' by 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
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Review of Ariel - Sylvia Plath

Real 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
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Review of Ariel - Sylvia Plath

Tough, But Worth It!

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
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The small jewelled Doll of a mans imagination

Advantages: great collection with loots of depth
Disadvantages: none

feminist influences within her work. 1 ‘Winter Trees’ by Sylvia Plath. 2 ‘Sylvia Plath’ by S. Bassnett. (Pg 114) 3 http://www.slflannery.freeserve.co.uk/godiva/index.html 4 ‘Sylvia Plath’ by S. Bassnett. (Pg 96) 5 ‘Sylvia Plath’ by S. Bassnett. (Pg 96) 6 From another poem: ‘Ariel’. 7 From another poem: ‘Tulips’. 8 ‘Sylvia Plath: Selected Poems’ by York Notes Pg 53 9 ‘Winter Trees’ by Sylvia Plath. 10 ‘The Colossus’ by Sylvia Plath. 11 ‘Crossing the Water’ by Sylvia Plath. 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! ...

Kram_Eniarrol 02.04.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Winter Trees - Sylvia Plath

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