''Ariel'' was the second book of
Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, '' Th ...
's poetry to be published. It was originally published in 1965, two years after her death by suicide. The poems in the 1965 edition of ''Ariel'', with their free-flowing images and characteristically menacing psychic landscapes, marked a dramatic turn from Plath's earlier ''
Colossus
Colossus, Colossos, or the plural Colossi or Colossuses, may refer to:
Statues
* Any exceptionally large statue
** List of tallest statues
** :Colossal statues
* ''Colossus of Barletta'', a bronze statue of an unidentified Roman emperor
* ''Col ...
'' poems.
In the 1965 edition of ''Ariel'',
Ted Hughes
Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...
changed Plath's chosen selection and arrangement by dropping twelve poems, adding twelve composed a few months later and shifting the poems' ordering, in addition to including an introduction by the poet
Robert Lowell.
Having Lowell write the introduction to the book was appropriate, since, in a BBC interview, Plath cited Lowell's book ''
Life Studies
''Life Studies'' is the fourth book of poems by Robert Lowell. Most critics (including Helen Vendler, Steven Gould Axelrod, Adam Kirsch, and others) consider it one of Lowell's most important books, and the Academy of American Poets named it ...
'' as having had a profound influence over the poetry she was writing in this last phase of her writing career.
In the same interview, Plath also cited the poet
Anne Sexton
Anne Sexton (born Anne Gray Harvey; November 9, 1928 – October 4, 1974) was an American poet known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book '' Live or Die''. Her poetry details ...
as an important influence on her writing during this time since Sexton was also exploring some of the same dark, taboo, personal subject matter that Plath was exploring in her writing.
In 2004, a new edition of ''Ariel'' was published which for the first time restored the selection and arrangement of the poems as Plath had left them; the 2004 edition also features a foreword by Plath and Hughes' daughter
Frieda Hughes
Frieda Rebecca Hughes (born 1 April 1960) is an English-Australian poet and painter. She has published seven children's books, four poetry collections and one short story and has had many exhibitions.
Family and personal life
Hughes is the daug ...
.
Contents (1965 version)
Poems marked with an * were not in Plath's original manuscript, but were added by Ted Hughes. Most of them date from the last few weeks of Plath's life.
Reception
Marjorie Perloff
Marjorie Perloff (born September 28, 1931) is an Austrian-born poetry scholar and critic in the United States.
Early life
Perloff was born Gabriele Mintz into a secularized Jewish family in Vienna. The annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany exa ...
said in her article, "The Two Ariels: The (Re)making Of The Sylvia Plath Canon” that “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."
[ ] Another critic remarked that “her poetry would have been valuable no matter what she had written about.”
A very accurate description of Plath, considering her form of poetry was notorious for being dark and questionable among her readers.
Awards
* 1982 - Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Analysis
Upon analyzing the collection of poems along with considering her other work, it is concluded that like her other poems, "Ariel" is "highly autobiographical, psychological and confessional poem."
Additional poems in her manuscript
#"The Rabbit Catcher"
#"Thalidomide"
#"Barren Woman"
#"A Secret"
#"The Jailor"
#"The Detective"
#"Magi"
#"The Other"
#"Stopped Dead"
#"The Courage of Shutting-Up"
#"Purdah"
#"Amnesiac"
#"Lesbos" (included in US version)
References
External links
Slate.com article about publication of restored ArielAfter Ariel: Celebrating the poetry of the women's movement
by Honor Moore in the ''Boston Review
''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...
''
''Ariel''
at the British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
The Complete working papers for poem 'Sheep In Fog'
at the British Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ariel (Book)
American poetry collections
1965 poetry books
Books by Sylvia Plath
Faber and Faber books
Books published posthumously
Poems published posthumously