Selected Poems - Sylvia Plath

Strange title? Well: We have been studying the poetry of Plath and Jennings ... both suffered from mental illness and both allude to this quite heavily in their poetry. What are our teachers doing? 3 months away from exams and we are forced to study two lots of depressing, insanity encourageing poems ... which we aren't even going to be examined on! Don't get me wrong, Plath ... and Jennings ... as poets are really good writers and it is a shame that their poetry hasn't made it much past the A Level text book. You have to enjoy leveled poetry to read work by either of these poets and must ... more

I read this as part of my English Lit A-Level and loved it. Plath is a truly great poet and her poetry is at times heart breaking. Selected Poems includes most of her best work like Ariel and Lady Lazarus as well as some other gems such as Winter Trees. Her poetry often uses images of nature and it mainly refers to her life or moods. This means that it can help if you know a little bit about Plath before reading it. My favourite poem in this collection has to be Lady Lazarus. The poem is long compared to some others of hers but it has a real beauty about its language that makes up for this ... more