Ariel

Ariel is a poetry collection by Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath wrote its poems during a brief, intense period shortly before her death. The collection helped establish her reputation as a poet. Emily Berry provides an introduction that helps both new and returning readers enter the poems. That introduction also shows how Plath's influence has continued across generations. Death, creativity, and lasting influence shape the book's subject and its place in poetry. The poems and the introduction together offer a path for readers meeting Plath's work or returning to it.

Why You Should Read?

• Discover poems that Sylvia Plath wrote in a brief, intense period before her death.
• Explore an introduction by Emily Berry that offers a way into the poems.
• Understand how the collection helped establish Sylvia Plath's reputation as a poet.
• Learn how Sylvia Plath's influence has continued across generations through these poems.

About the Author

Sylvia Plath lived from 1932 to 1963 and wrote poetry and prose. She helped shape confessional poetry, which used personal experience and direct address. Her books include The Colossus and Other Poems, Ariel, The Bell Jar, and The Collected Poems. Born in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and later at the University of Cambridge in England. At Newnham College she studied on a Fulbright. In 1956 she married a fellow poet in London. They had two children and separated in 1962. In 1982 she received a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.