So, wow, this is my first time reading more than a couple poems by Sylvia Plath. And, since her writing is very much written from personal experience, I also learned a lot more about her as a person. Prior to reading Ariel I pretty much just knew that Plath was a popular poet and writer who was married to another Poet, Ted Hughes, fand that she had suffered from depression and committed suicide at a relatively young age. Once I had read through the first several poems of this book, I quickly realized that I almost needed to look up more info about Plath’s life to gain any kind of understanding of these poems. So, I would often stop after a first or second read of a poem and look up analysis and more info on Plath’s life. In this way I was able to see how a lot of the poems in Ariel really do seem to come directly from specific events and moments of the author’s life.

The introduction given by Plath’s daughter was excellent and being able to see in this edition in particular the differences between how Ted Hughes published this collection and how Plath had originally intended the poems to be included and arranged was very interesting. As far as the writing itself, there’s not much for me to say that hasn’t been said by people far more qualified than me to say them and yet of course I will agree that these poems are excellently written. Sometimes they can be a little difficult to read, particularly for an extended period, considering their topic generally delves into Plath’s seemingly increasing state of depressive and suicidal thought along with poems about her wrath and loss of being cheated on and left behind by her husband, having no one who seems to really understand her, the loss of her father, her miscarriage, and many more such difficult topics.

I would have to say that my favorite poems from this collection are: “Morning Song,” “Ariel,” “The Rival,” “The Jailer,” and “Wintering.”

Ariel: The Restored Edition: A Facsimile of Plath’s Manuscript, Reinstating Her Original Selection and Arrangement by Sylvia Plath: 4/5 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ( )

It's been so long since I read this one that I can't recall its details, except that I liked much of her poetry. ( )

"Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well"

I picked this book up on a whim from the local library as I'm trying to expand my reading on poetry and Sylvia Plath is one of those poet many have heard about but mostly due to her early death at just 30 years old after completing suicide.

This collection is remarkable in many ways. Firstly it contains a forward from her daughter Frieda Hughes which explains the history of the collections. While these are not her last poems they are the last collection she curated herself. Hughes also explains the reasoning behind the various past editions of this collection mostly edited by her father and Plath’s husband, Ted Hughes, a poet in his own right. She explains how poems were left out or edited depending on where it was published sometimes to protect the people the poems are written about. Lastly included in the second half of the book is Plath's original manuscript with all her marked up edits and amendments.

A treasure trove for any lover of literature or poetry.

I had read a few of Plath's poems many years ago but don't remember ever sitting down and reading a whole collection, perhaps because by and large, poetry collections (of which I've struggled through many) are kind of terrible to sit down and read. Ariel followed this trend for me. Here and there I found a poem or a line or an image I liked, but I found myself glazing over plenty too, and generally I just don't think I'm the right audience for Plath, if I'm the right audience for poetry at all. ( )

The first of the books from the semester that I'm finishing over the summer.

Great intro, written by Freida Hughes (Plath's daughter), clarifying and complicating the controversy over Ted Hughes' rearrangement of Plath's poems after her death. I'd never read Plath before, though I knew she is iconic, so all of the extra material in here was new and interesting for me. I'm not a huge poetry person, especially super confessional poetry,(I like the analysis, but reading it for pleasure is a little frustrating to me), but Plath is legendary because she is so, so good at it. I loved most of these poems, though I have to be cliche and say that "Daddy" is my favorite.

Some stand-out lines:

From "Tulips": "And I am aware of my heart: it opens and closes/Its bowl of red blooms out of sheer love of me."

From "Lady Lazarus": "Out of the ash/I rise with my red hair/And I eat men like air."

From "Daddy": "Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through." (I get chills here every time!!!) ( )