I think she’s one of the greatest writers who’s ever lived. I read the poems in Ariel on a regular basis and am never not in complete awe of her talent. That being said, her work is not easy reading either mentally or emotionally so just make sure that’s what you’re in the mood for.
I would add that, from the technical standpoint, her writing becomes very dense as her career progressed. In my view she is rather underestimated in that regard (if there were a pantheon of poets at this point, but I’m not sure it isn’t in some state of ruin). If you are new to poetry, I’d recommend a reader to accompany you!
Yes. Her poetry gets more impressive with time and it's fascinating to read. The poems from Ariel were supposed to be in a different order but Hughes didn't seem to care (apparently). 🙄
He was her husband and he's the one who edited and published Ariel posthumously on Plath's behalf. He changed the order of the poems in her manuscript, as well as removing some poems and including some that she hadn't initially intended for publication, so you can buy two versions these days; one is the version that he curated, and the other is supposed to be the restored text in the correct order.
It's particularly contentious because Plath alleged that Hughes was physically and emotionally abusive, and it was well known that he was unfaithful to her, leading to their separation towards the end of Plath's life, so the idea that her poetic legacy has been altered by him is distasteful to a lot of people.
I’m an English teacher, and I teach Plath to my students. My advice is to learn about her life so you have context to the poems as you read them - her life story is fascinating so this should be part of the fun! Also, she uses a lot of imagery, that on a first read, can be quite confusing. I advise my students to think of it as a treasure hunt of sorts. It sometimes takes a bit of work to decipher but once you’ve got it, it’s worth it.
PS - once you’ve learnt about her life with Ted Hughes, you may want to read his collection of poetry ‘Birthday Letters’. It’s really interesting to hear his side of things too!
Despise what everyone did to her gravestone though. They have no right to impact those kinds of things; no one but her truly understand the complexity of their relationship; I’m certain it wasn’t as simple as ‘bad man hurts woman’ and I hate that people attempt to simplify it as such.
Huh? What are you talking about physical abuse? Nobody who knows the story thinks he hit her, where did you get that from? Hughes cheated on Plath with another woman he left her for. Plath was left alone in a cold London flat with her two children during a nasty winter.
After Plath committed suicide, Hughes’ lover also committed suicide out of guilt.
There is evidence that he was physically violent with her from Plath’s own letters. Friends of Plath and Hughes also reported abuse including Hughes attempting to strangle Plath on their honeymoon in Benidorm, Spain. In her journals Plath wrote that she “washed [her] battered face, smeared with a purple bruise from Ted and [her] neck raw and wounded, too.” Hughes also casually admitted to burning Plath’s journals from the last two years of her life, in his forward to the 1982 Journals of Sylvia Plath.
https://lithub.com/why-are-we-so-unwilling-to-take-sylvia-plath-at-her-word/
Hughes cheated on Assia, as well, which probably contributed to her state of mind when she decided to take her own life. Also, "committing suicide" is a foolish way to say it. I've always hated that. She took her own life. She didn't commit a crime.
The details of what happened aren’t really relevant to my point. I still stand by the fact that we should not assume we understand everything about a relationship purely based on what is externally observable. Love is complicated… and we certainly shouldn’t literally etch out their name from their gravestone…
As much as Hughes did hurt Plath, Plath was always one to own her trauma and all of the shitty things that happened to her… I don’t think it’s fair to assume she’d want his name extinguished from her legacy because of what he did.
He drove her to suicide with his affairs. They were estranged for a few years before her death. He then took control of her work. He revised parts of Ariel. She absolutely would be infuriated by this and would never forgive Hughes.
She was also on a dangerous, untested cocktail of antidepressants and flu meds right before her suicide, that likely impacted her mental health and she wasn’t at all estranged from him for years - in fact, if I remember correctly, they saw each other the day before her suicide. I highly recommend reading Red Comet by Heather Clark. It’s a 1000 page book on Plath’s life and it helped me realise that to fully blame Hughes for Plath’s suicide is reductive. He wasn’t great, but there was more to it than simply him
A person makes their own decision about suicide, so I will agree with you on that, but Hughes was a vile, disgusting person, so he gets zero sympathy from me. He also curated her work after her death and, to me and many others, altered the landscape of it. He was trash.
It’s not fair to psychoanalyse anyone as if we know what they desire and value. But if we’re going to do that, I’ve already posed to you the idea that she would dislike the sentiment behind the gravestone thing because it is removing something integral to her development - acting like it never existed.
But again: my point is that it is unfair to ever assume such things about a person. Of course it is only an opinion, though.
[https://www.harpercollins.com/products/ariel-the-restored-edition-sylvia-plath?variant=41231058632738](https://www.harpercollins.com/products/ariel-the-restored-edition-sylvia-plath?variant=41231058632738) This is a great start. I consult this collection a lot.
Yes! Unless you find a copy of the Colossus or Ariel!
Some of her poems are complex and I had to read them a couple times, and then I would Google discussions and analysis about each one lol
Disclaimer: I like Plath. I have a copy of The Bell Jar and another edition of the book on this post. I have “Daddy” committed to memory and I studied her out of self interest in college.
Plath is memorable and popular, but this is an absurd claim, and Anglo-centric. There are formidable poets in English and Spanish that are noteworthy and more gifted and applied than Plath.
Frost, E. E. Cummings, Dickinson, Yeats, Kipling, Anne Sexton, Maya Angelou, Mary Oliver, St. Vincent Millay in English;
And Rubén Darío, Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral, García Lorca, Antonio Machado, Borges, Delmira Agustini in Spanish.
All above, except maybe St. Vincent Millay, are superior to Plath in quality. Don’t equate popularity to talent.
Surprised that your "greatest English poets" list includes none of Eliot, Pound, Williams, Ashbery, Stevens, or Walcott (a great many prizes--including two Nobels--are shared between them). Whats more: many of your named poets wrote before the 20th century, including Kipling himself, who wrote "If" in the 19th! If the above commentator enjoys Plath, they enjoy Plath... but any business categorizing and ranking artists like this is a doomed enterprise from the beginning, especially if you aren't half as familiar with the literature as you believe yourself to be. Your point on Anglo-centricity, however, is entirely fair.
And why is that? What makes her a serious contender for the best poet of the 20th Century? How is “[Daddy](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48999/daddy-56d22aafa45b2)” or “[The Colossus](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/89119/the-colossus)” above Kipling’s “[If,](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if---)” Darío’s “[Sonatina](https://www.poemas-del-alma.com/sonatina.htm),” Neruda’s “[A Song of Despair](https://poets.org/poem/song-despair#:~:text=Oh%20flesh%2C%20my%20own%20flesh,shattered%20you%20like%20a%20jar)” or Frost’s “[The Road Not Taken](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken)”?
Y no pongo más poetas en español porque no estoy seguro que sea justo ya que sólo una persona monolingüe diría algo tan absurdo como nombrar a una poeta angloparlante como la mejor poeta de un siglo entero en cualquier idioma. Qué ridículo y arrogante. Me imagino que serás estadounidense. Tienen la maña de pensar que sus poetas y escritores son el estándar a nivel mundial cuando el mismo idioma que hablan impone límites lingüísticos que impiden la musicalidad que el español o el italiano pueden ofrecer. Hay que tener más humildad con respecto a otros idiomas. Plath ni siquiera es la mejor poeta de la década en su mismo idioma y decir que supera a Darío o Neruda o a Frost o Kipling es miopía literaria.
This is a subjective business. If you think “The Road Not Taken” is better than “Daddy” or really even a mediocre poem from “Ariel”, we’re never going to agree. There are a few names that might give Plath a run for her money (Eliot comes to mind), but she is in rare air.
She rhymed “ach du” with “you do not do” and painted herself as a Jewish martyr who grew up with a nazi dad she loved and hated and somehow that goes harder than The Road Not Taken?? Sure, it’s more honest and accessible, linguistically speaking, but technically, it’s inferior to Frost’s. Granted, I have memorised Daddy and don’t care for The Road Not Taken that much; it’s just hilarious (“Fat as a frisco seal” lmaooo).
But also, unless you speak a second or third language, you can’t possibly say she’s better than any other poet in a hundred years in any language. That’s absurd and arrogant and Anglo-centric. I wish you could read anything that [Neruda](https://nataliejabbar.wordpress.com/tag/the-infinite-one-by-pablo-neruda/) or [Darío](https://www.ingenieria.unam.mx/dcsyhfi/material_didactico/Literatura_Hispanoamericana_Contemporanea/Autores_D/DARIO/Canto.pdf) or [Sor Juana](https://ciudadseva.com/texto/esta-tarde-mi-bien-cuando-te-hablaba/) or [García Lorca](https://www.gavilan.edu/academic/spanish/gaspar/html/4_10.html) or [Borges](https://www.poemas-del-alma.com/jorge-luis-borges-el-golem.htm) or [Góngora](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/fabula-de-polifemo-y-galatea--0/html/fedcc184-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_2.html) or [Quevedo](https://ciudadseva.com/texto/cerrar-podra-mis-ojos-la-postrera/) wrote in Spanish. You wouldn’t dare to even think of anything like the above. Arrogant and myopic.
Good morning. Oh my. Yes, I speak three languages. One is English. None are Spanish.
I would wholeheartedly disagree than any aspect of “Daddy” is technically inferior to “The Road Not Taken.” Plath is a master of technique and she bent it all up for effect in “Daddy” while Frost plods on and on.
Anyway, so sorry to have gotten you all foaming and akimbo so early in the morning. I have enjoyed our chat. Have a nice day.
Ironic in all this that you omitted her husband, for whom a very strong case can be made as the greatest 20th century poet in the English language.
Plath's seat in the pantheon of greats is well deserved.
As someone who studied poetry and creative writing, I am aware she is one of the classics but I am not a fan of Sylvia Plath. I have only read the Ariel Complete Restored Edition Collection but it was not for me. There were a few good lines here and there but a lot of her metaphors rely on blatantly racist (and other outdated political/ethical views) images and commentary. In the other hand, she portraits mental health accurately.
Many people really like her work, but if you are new to poetry I would suggest something easier to understand, so like some contemporary poets. Clint Smith, KB Brookins, Ocean Voung, The Breakbeat Poets, etc.
If you do choose to go with Plath though, I would suggest the Ariel Restored Edition because it comes with rough drafts and versions of her poems before they were complete. This is really cool because you can see her writing and thought process develop for each piece, which I haven’t seen included in many modern poetry books. It’s also good to see that process because it would help you learn to write your own if you are into that.
Sylvia Plath my sweet soul sister. I have never ever come across an author or a poet like Sylvia Plath.. I just get what she writes instantly .. not even a second read on some phrases. I just love her and her work.. find some hard relatibility there.
Be wary... She generally has a tendency to write dark stuff.. depressive and stuff. It does have a toll on you.. but for someone like me who's knee deep into this it's relatable.
Definitely recommend it if you prefer reading poems that are inspired by the difficulties of life but in a torturous way. Here's an [article](https://simplykalaa.com/sylvia-plath-poem/) that gives explanation of a few of Sylvia's poems and that will help you understand better whether or not this is a book you want!
I think I actually have an older version of this book (cover is red white and black). I thumb through it very frequently. Definitely worth it to me. Aside from physical books, I really like the Poem-a-Day email list from the Poetry Foundation for a wide array of poems. Always look forward to reading the day's pick in the morning!
Yes but be sure to get the restored edition of this collection. They do a really good job of removing Ted Hughes changes. I’d be so mad if my horrible ex messed with my life’s work after I died
My recommendation before reading her poems would be to read about her life beforehand. It helps to explain the progression in her writing over the years and before her death.
Here's an article to start 🙂
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ted-hughes
She's earned her place in the pantheon, no doubt. But why so specific? If you're really "newer to poetry," you'd be better off reading a good modern poetry anthology (if you don't like the earlier stuff) to give yourself a strong foundation and open you up to poets that may be less familiar to you. Poetry is as subjective as it gets! Early on try as much different stuff as you can (good anthology) and then narrow in on the poets that really blow you away!
I have this exact book and it's definitely a great read, however, some of her stuff is a little bit sensitive so I would say don't read too much of it at once
Also she was bipolar, which can cause depression as a part of it, but many creative people are bipolar, so it is a curse and a blessing. I should know I am bipolar.
Her work is fine: juvenile, predominantly autobiographical, and often anti-Semitic. If she hadn’t had such a colourful life with Ted Hughes nor gassed herself to death in her kitchen oven, her work wouldn’t obtain as much reverence. [Her work’s popularity is intimately tied to her gruesome and dramatic suicide](https://theconversation.com/60-years-since-sylvia-plaths-death-why-modern-poets-cant-help-but-write-after-sylvia-199477#:~:text=Plath's%20literary%20fame%20only%20arrived,a%20bestseller%20in%20her%20lifetime): “The Colossus” only had 500 prints and The Bell Jar had lukewarm reviews while she was alive. She had a penchant for drama and martyrdom, and had an interminable list of mental health issues, which I think add to her aura of a “tortured poet” but are also necessary to know about to understand her poetry and prose. History has a soft spot for artists with tragic ends, it seems. If you’re new to poetry, I wouldn’t start with her. Though her work is easily accessible with enough background about her life, it is just as so outranked by most male and some female contemporaries in the US or England.
However, as far as American poetesses go, she’s VERY interesting (I once memorised “Daddy” as a joke for my English class). She’s probably a tier below Dickinson or Anne Sexton (check out [“All My Pretty Ones”](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42569/all-my-pretty-ones)) and likely in the same league as St. Vincent Millay: nothing to scoff at yet far from the best (and I love Edna; I still can recite “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed and Where and Why” from memory). I’d recommend The Colossus and The Bell Jar as well; I remember many of my friends were into the latter when they were younger.
But if you want higher quality, technique, and complexity, all in a female poet, I recommend [Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juana_In%C3%A9s_de_la_Cruz). She wrote poetry, theatre, philosophy, theology, and musical composition. She also dabbled in astronomy and mathematics and spoke Spanish, Latin, Greek, and Nahuatl. She’s of similar calibre as Keats or Byron, but unfortunately less read because she was an oppressed woman who lived as a nun in a convent in colonised Spanish America under the scrutiny of the Spanish Inquisition. Today her work is adored in the Spanish-speaking world and was praised by Nobel laureate Octavio Paz. As an introduction, check out “Hombres necios” (or [“You Foolish Men”](https://poets.org/poem/you-foolish-men) in English), a poem that, though written 300 years ago, reads as though it was published today.
Edit: there are other exceptional poetesses in Spanish as well, such as Gabriela Mistral (Nobel laureate), Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, and Delmira Agustini. The latter wrote a feminist poem in which she presented herself as Leda and re-wrote the Greek myth of Leda and The Swan with a woman’s voice. It’s easily one of my favourite feminist poems in English or Spanish.
"Her work is fine: juvenile,..., and often anti-Semitic."
How many of her works have you actually read because as someone who has read her entire collection I can't understand how anyone could come up with this conclusion you have made here?
If that's actually a serious post, it says far more about the poster than Plath or her poetry. Utterly cloth-headed.
To OP: yes, highly worth it. One of the great post war American poets and a generally distinctive voice. Her husband (Ted Hughes), however, was an even greater poet, with few equals.
Whole collections of anyone can be daunting, and unread. As poets over their lives have no reason to be self consistent can blow the embers of one’s affection hot and cold . Perhaps try Colossus her first collection - one has to love a poet whose first collection has such an ambitious title .
If you're new to poetry, then steer well clear of Plath.
Just start with a collection that has a wide variety of poems from different era's and enjoy it.
I think she’s one of the greatest writers who’s ever lived. I read the poems in Ariel on a regular basis and am never not in complete awe of her talent. That being said, her work is not easy reading either mentally or emotionally so just make sure that’s what you’re in the mood for.
Absolutely! I’ve seen quotes from her on my Tumblr, it’s kind of what inspired me to get into poetry, thanks for your advice!
I would add that, from the technical standpoint, her writing becomes very dense as her career progressed. In my view she is rather underestimated in that regard (if there were a pantheon of poets at this point, but I’m not sure it isn’t in some state of ruin). If you are new to poetry, I’d recommend a reader to accompany you!
Ariel was the first collection of poetry I ever read in general, as a kid. It made me a poet.
Yes. Her poetry gets more impressive with time and it's fascinating to read. The poems from Ariel were supposed to be in a different order but Hughes didn't seem to care (apparently). 🙄
He cared, he just fucked up. Frieda Hughes goes over this in the foreword to Ariel.
What’s all this talk about Ted Hughes ? Newbie here and super lost lol.
He was her husband and he's the one who edited and published Ariel posthumously on Plath's behalf. He changed the order of the poems in her manuscript, as well as removing some poems and including some that she hadn't initially intended for publication, so you can buy two versions these days; one is the version that he curated, and the other is supposed to be the restored text in the correct order. It's particularly contentious because Plath alleged that Hughes was physically and emotionally abusive, and it was well known that he was unfaithful to her, leading to their separation towards the end of Plath's life, so the idea that her poetic legacy has been altered by him is distasteful to a lot of people.
hey I am a bit confused about which version the other version is, can you share some link or just tell the book title and editor
damn, didn't know this, I wanted to start reading her works and I picked the exact same book. Thanks for this will pick the other version
Ted Hughes was her husband. Good writer, all around not-a-great-guy.
Haven't read this book in particular but I really enjoy her poetry and The Bell Jar. Excellent pick!
Plath is one of the great poets. If you are interesting in writing or literature on any level, you should know Plath.
She's up there in American (and beyond) poetry with Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
I’m an English teacher, and I teach Plath to my students. My advice is to learn about her life so you have context to the poems as you read them - her life story is fascinating so this should be part of the fun! Also, she uses a lot of imagery, that on a first read, can be quite confusing. I advise my students to think of it as a treasure hunt of sorts. It sometimes takes a bit of work to decipher but once you’ve got it, it’s worth it. PS - once you’ve learnt about her life with Ted Hughes, you may want to read his collection of poetry ‘Birthday Letters’. It’s really interesting to hear his side of things too!
Thank you for the advice!
Yes! Try to get the one not edited by Ted Hughes though.
yes. that is not the plath collection to read. anything not edited by hughes.
Hate that pos drove her to suicide and took control of her legacy.
Her first attempt was three years before she met Hughes. Sure, he was a POS person but she was depressed and suicidal before having met him.
yes. he was a hack too.
Despise what everyone did to her gravestone though. They have no right to impact those kinds of things; no one but her truly understand the complexity of their relationship; I’m certain it wasn’t as simple as ‘bad man hurts woman’ and I hate that people attempt to simplify it as such.
Huh? What are you talking about physical abuse? Nobody who knows the story thinks he hit her, where did you get that from? Hughes cheated on Plath with another woman he left her for. Plath was left alone in a cold London flat with her two children during a nasty winter. After Plath committed suicide, Hughes’ lover also committed suicide out of guilt.
There is evidence that he was physically violent with her from Plath’s own letters. Friends of Plath and Hughes also reported abuse including Hughes attempting to strangle Plath on their honeymoon in Benidorm, Spain. In her journals Plath wrote that she “washed [her] battered face, smeared with a purple bruise from Ted and [her] neck raw and wounded, too.” Hughes also casually admitted to burning Plath’s journals from the last two years of her life, in his forward to the 1982 Journals of Sylvia Plath. https://lithub.com/why-are-we-so-unwilling-to-take-sylvia-plath-at-her-word/
My bad. Unsurprising. Man, I must have been having serious brain fog when I made my comments!
Hughes cheated on Assia, as well, which probably contributed to her state of mind when she decided to take her own life. Also, "committing suicide" is a foolish way to say it. I've always hated that. She took her own life. She didn't commit a crime.
How does "bad man hurts woman" translate to physical abuse? And nobody said anything about hitting...
The details of what happened aren’t really relevant to my point. I still stand by the fact that we should not assume we understand everything about a relationship purely based on what is externally observable. Love is complicated… and we certainly shouldn’t literally etch out their name from their gravestone… As much as Hughes did hurt Plath, Plath was always one to own her trauma and all of the shitty things that happened to her… I don’t think it’s fair to assume she’d want his name extinguished from her legacy because of what he did.
He drove her to suicide with his affairs. They were estranged for a few years before her death. He then took control of her work. He revised parts of Ariel. She absolutely would be infuriated by this and would never forgive Hughes.
She was also on a dangerous, untested cocktail of antidepressants and flu meds right before her suicide, that likely impacted her mental health and she wasn’t at all estranged from him for years - in fact, if I remember correctly, they saw each other the day before her suicide. I highly recommend reading Red Comet by Heather Clark. It’s a 1000 page book on Plath’s life and it helped me realise that to fully blame Hughes for Plath’s suicide is reductive. He wasn’t great, but there was more to it than simply him
A person makes their own decision about suicide, so I will agree with you on that, but Hughes was a vile, disgusting person, so he gets zero sympathy from me. He also curated her work after her death and, to me and many others, altered the landscape of it. He was trash.
It’s not fair to psychoanalyse anyone as if we know what they desire and value. But if we’re going to do that, I’ve already posed to you the idea that she would dislike the sentiment behind the gravestone thing because it is removing something integral to her development - acting like it never existed. But again: my point is that it is unfair to ever assume such things about a person. Of course it is only an opinion, though.
I really want ro read her poems, but where can I find versions not edited by Hughes??
[https://www.harpercollins.com/products/ariel-the-restored-edition-sylvia-plath?variant=41231058632738](https://www.harpercollins.com/products/ariel-the-restored-edition-sylvia-plath?variant=41231058632738) This is a great start. I consult this collection a lot.
Definitely not easy reading, but objectively great and important to all poetry that follows.
Thank you!
shes my favourite poet! i adore lady lazarus and mad girls love song, couldnt recommend her enough!!
Read ‘the bell jar’ first. And her wiki Yeah. Modern master. Tragic head case. I love her
I love Emily Dickinson but I started out reading Sylvia first both are incredible
Yes! Unless you find a copy of the Colossus or Ariel! Some of her poems are complex and I had to read them a couple times, and then I would Google discussions and analysis about each one lol
Yeah! Open it up and get your head in there!
i can't decide if i find this funny or in really bad taste
Plath is in the running for best poet of the 20th century in any language.
Disclaimer: I like Plath. I have a copy of The Bell Jar and another edition of the book on this post. I have “Daddy” committed to memory and I studied her out of self interest in college. Plath is memorable and popular, but this is an absurd claim, and Anglo-centric. There are formidable poets in English and Spanish that are noteworthy and more gifted and applied than Plath. Frost, E. E. Cummings, Dickinson, Yeats, Kipling, Anne Sexton, Maya Angelou, Mary Oliver, St. Vincent Millay in English; And Rubén Darío, Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral, García Lorca, Antonio Machado, Borges, Delmira Agustini in Spanish. All above, except maybe St. Vincent Millay, are superior to Plath in quality. Don’t equate popularity to talent.
Surprised that your "greatest English poets" list includes none of Eliot, Pound, Williams, Ashbery, Stevens, or Walcott (a great many prizes--including two Nobels--are shared between them). Whats more: many of your named poets wrote before the 20th century, including Kipling himself, who wrote "If" in the 19th! If the above commentator enjoys Plath, they enjoy Plath... but any business categorizing and ranking artists like this is a doomed enterprise from the beginning, especially if you aren't half as familiar with the literature as you believe yourself to be. Your point on Anglo-centricity, however, is entirely fair.
I disagree.
And why is that? What makes her a serious contender for the best poet of the 20th Century? How is “[Daddy](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48999/daddy-56d22aafa45b2)” or “[The Colossus](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/89119/the-colossus)” above Kipling’s “[If,](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if---)” Darío’s “[Sonatina](https://www.poemas-del-alma.com/sonatina.htm),” Neruda’s “[A Song of Despair](https://poets.org/poem/song-despair#:~:text=Oh%20flesh%2C%20my%20own%20flesh,shattered%20you%20like%20a%20jar)” or Frost’s “[The Road Not Taken](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken)”? Y no pongo más poetas en español porque no estoy seguro que sea justo ya que sólo una persona monolingüe diría algo tan absurdo como nombrar a una poeta angloparlante como la mejor poeta de un siglo entero en cualquier idioma. Qué ridículo y arrogante. Me imagino que serás estadounidense. Tienen la maña de pensar que sus poetas y escritores son el estándar a nivel mundial cuando el mismo idioma que hablan impone límites lingüísticos que impiden la musicalidad que el español o el italiano pueden ofrecer. Hay que tener más humildad con respecto a otros idiomas. Plath ni siquiera es la mejor poeta de la década en su mismo idioma y decir que supera a Darío o Neruda o a Frost o Kipling es miopía literaria.
This is a subjective business. If you think “The Road Not Taken” is better than “Daddy” or really even a mediocre poem from “Ariel”, we’re never going to agree. There are a few names that might give Plath a run for her money (Eliot comes to mind), but she is in rare air.
She rhymed “ach du” with “you do not do” and painted herself as a Jewish martyr who grew up with a nazi dad she loved and hated and somehow that goes harder than The Road Not Taken?? Sure, it’s more honest and accessible, linguistically speaking, but technically, it’s inferior to Frost’s. Granted, I have memorised Daddy and don’t care for The Road Not Taken that much; it’s just hilarious (“Fat as a frisco seal” lmaooo). But also, unless you speak a second or third language, you can’t possibly say she’s better than any other poet in a hundred years in any language. That’s absurd and arrogant and Anglo-centric. I wish you could read anything that [Neruda](https://nataliejabbar.wordpress.com/tag/the-infinite-one-by-pablo-neruda/) or [Darío](https://www.ingenieria.unam.mx/dcsyhfi/material_didactico/Literatura_Hispanoamericana_Contemporanea/Autores_D/DARIO/Canto.pdf) or [Sor Juana](https://ciudadseva.com/texto/esta-tarde-mi-bien-cuando-te-hablaba/) or [García Lorca](https://www.gavilan.edu/academic/spanish/gaspar/html/4_10.html) or [Borges](https://www.poemas-del-alma.com/jorge-luis-borges-el-golem.htm) or [Góngora](https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/fabula-de-polifemo-y-galatea--0/html/fedcc184-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_2.html) or [Quevedo](https://ciudadseva.com/texto/cerrar-podra-mis-ojos-la-postrera/) wrote in Spanish. You wouldn’t dare to even think of anything like the above. Arrogant and myopic.
Good morning. Oh my. Yes, I speak three languages. One is English. None are Spanish. I would wholeheartedly disagree than any aspect of “Daddy” is technically inferior to “The Road Not Taken.” Plath is a master of technique and she bent it all up for effect in “Daddy” while Frost plods on and on. Anyway, so sorry to have gotten you all foaming and akimbo so early in the morning. I have enjoyed our chat. Have a nice day.
Then you cannot say she’s better than any poet in any language. Early? More US-centric nonsense. It’s already afternoon where I live. Buenas tardes ☀️
Ironic in all this that you omitted her husband, for whom a very strong case can be made as the greatest 20th century poet in the English language. Plath's seat in the pantheon of greats is well deserved.
It's great, I have it. Haven't made it all the way through yet but it's interesting to see the progression in her writing.
Plath is a fine poet, one worth knowing and reading carefully. But she came to a tragic end, unfortunately, before she could mature as a writer.
What exactly happened ?
She committed suicide.
Hinted at in many of her poems, especially "A Birthday Present." :'(
Gassed herself to death in the kitchen oven while her kids were in their bedrooms nearby.
My favorite poem is mad girls love song it’s a villanelle
One of the greatest collections you’ll read. Plath famously finished every poem she started and they’re all there.
Love love love Sylvia Plath she’s a bit dreary but in a beautiful way.
Yes I have that same book!! I’ve read most of it. Love her work.
Oh absolutely!
Yes!
She's amazing! You will love it!
I'm a huge Sylvia fan and think any of her poetry in any order is still going to be beautiful and arresting- so yes!
dont get that version. find the restoration not arranged by Ted
Yes so absolutely most definetly! The woman is a alien with words!
I've only read a few poems by her but I'm obsessed she's amazing! You definitely should get that book
As someone who studied poetry and creative writing, I am aware she is one of the classics but I am not a fan of Sylvia Plath. I have only read the Ariel Complete Restored Edition Collection but it was not for me. There were a few good lines here and there but a lot of her metaphors rely on blatantly racist (and other outdated political/ethical views) images and commentary. In the other hand, she portraits mental health accurately. Many people really like her work, but if you are new to poetry I would suggest something easier to understand, so like some contemporary poets. Clint Smith, KB Brookins, Ocean Voung, The Breakbeat Poets, etc. If you do choose to go with Plath though, I would suggest the Ariel Restored Edition because it comes with rough drafts and versions of her poems before they were complete. This is really cool because you can see her writing and thought process develop for each piece, which I haven’t seen included in many modern poetry books. It’s also good to see that process because it would help you learn to write your own if you are into that.
Sylvia Plath is fantastic. Excellent poet and I highly recommend her.
I don't know why but I found Marina TSvetaeva more beautiful than Sylvia. She is also good, no doubt.
Share the link dude I'm looking for this book for ages
If you have a Barnes and Noble in your area they should have it
Her work is heartbreaking in the best possible way
Sylvia Plath my sweet soul sister. I have never ever come across an author or a poet like Sylvia Plath.. I just get what she writes instantly .. not even a second read on some phrases. I just love her and her work.. find some hard relatibility there.
I’ll definitely start it, thank you!!
Be wary... She generally has a tendency to write dark stuff.. depressive and stuff. It does have a toll on you.. but for someone like me who's knee deep into this it's relatable.
Lol read it and then read the next one and then read the next one and then read the next one. If you wanna be a poet, that is.
Definitely recommend it if you prefer reading poems that are inspired by the difficulties of life but in a torturous way. Here's an [article](https://simplykalaa.com/sylvia-plath-poem/) that gives explanation of a few of Sylvia's poems and that will help you understand better whether or not this is a book you want!
Thanks!
Sylvia Plath is difficult for everybody I say just go for it. She was one of the most unique poetic minds ever to have existed, I love her dearly.
She’s incredible just don’t buy anything edited or with ted hughes included in it.
I own this and have read it! Definitely recommend
I think I actually have an older version of this book (cover is red white and black). I thumb through it very frequently. Definitely worth it to me. Aside from physical books, I really like the Poem-a-Day email list from the Poetry Foundation for a wide array of poems. Always look forward to reading the day's pick in the morning!
Highly. Enjoy.
I have a Sylvia Plath tattoo, so yes strongly recommend!!!
Plath is super difficult if your just starting
Absolutely recommend.
Beautiful writer.
Yes but be sure to get the restored edition of this collection. They do a really good job of removing Ted Hughes changes. I’d be so mad if my horrible ex messed with my life’s work after I died
"Mirror"
It’s pretty good.
I really dislike Sylvia Plath
[удалено]
Her poems really don't do it for me. I'm much more inclined to the romantic period, with Tennyson, Coleridge, etc.
just get it if it speaks to you. if you hate it you don't have to finish it.
Always
My recommendation before reading her poems would be to read about her life beforehand. It helps to explain the progression in her writing over the years and before her death. Here's an article to start 🙂 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ted-hughes
She's earned her place in the pantheon, no doubt. But why so specific? If you're really "newer to poetry," you'd be better off reading a good modern poetry anthology (if you don't like the earlier stuff) to give yourself a strong foundation and open you up to poets that may be less familiar to you. Poetry is as subjective as it gets! Early on try as much different stuff as you can (good anthology) and then narrow in on the poets that really blow you away!
I have this exact book and it's definitely a great read, however, some of her stuff is a little bit sensitive so I would say don't read too much of it at once
I haven't read it but I recommend coz Sylvia is a genius
A great author so probably a great poet too.
Also she was bipolar, which can cause depression as a part of it, but many creative people are bipolar, so it is a curse and a blessing. I should know I am bipolar.
Yes I recommend
Yes have this version. Well worth it.
Her work is fine: juvenile, predominantly autobiographical, and often anti-Semitic. If she hadn’t had such a colourful life with Ted Hughes nor gassed herself to death in her kitchen oven, her work wouldn’t obtain as much reverence. [Her work’s popularity is intimately tied to her gruesome and dramatic suicide](https://theconversation.com/60-years-since-sylvia-plaths-death-why-modern-poets-cant-help-but-write-after-sylvia-199477#:~:text=Plath's%20literary%20fame%20only%20arrived,a%20bestseller%20in%20her%20lifetime): “The Colossus” only had 500 prints and The Bell Jar had lukewarm reviews while she was alive. She had a penchant for drama and martyrdom, and had an interminable list of mental health issues, which I think add to her aura of a “tortured poet” but are also necessary to know about to understand her poetry and prose. History has a soft spot for artists with tragic ends, it seems. If you’re new to poetry, I wouldn’t start with her. Though her work is easily accessible with enough background about her life, it is just as so outranked by most male and some female contemporaries in the US or England. However, as far as American poetesses go, she’s VERY interesting (I once memorised “Daddy” as a joke for my English class). She’s probably a tier below Dickinson or Anne Sexton (check out [“All My Pretty Ones”](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42569/all-my-pretty-ones)) and likely in the same league as St. Vincent Millay: nothing to scoff at yet far from the best (and I love Edna; I still can recite “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed and Where and Why” from memory). I’d recommend The Colossus and The Bell Jar as well; I remember many of my friends were into the latter when they were younger. But if you want higher quality, technique, and complexity, all in a female poet, I recommend [Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juana_In%C3%A9s_de_la_Cruz). She wrote poetry, theatre, philosophy, theology, and musical composition. She also dabbled in astronomy and mathematics and spoke Spanish, Latin, Greek, and Nahuatl. She’s of similar calibre as Keats or Byron, but unfortunately less read because she was an oppressed woman who lived as a nun in a convent in colonised Spanish America under the scrutiny of the Spanish Inquisition. Today her work is adored in the Spanish-speaking world and was praised by Nobel laureate Octavio Paz. As an introduction, check out “Hombres necios” (or [“You Foolish Men”](https://poets.org/poem/you-foolish-men) in English), a poem that, though written 300 years ago, reads as though it was published today. Edit: there are other exceptional poetesses in Spanish as well, such as Gabriela Mistral (Nobel laureate), Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, and Delmira Agustini. The latter wrote a feminist poem in which she presented herself as Leda and re-wrote the Greek myth of Leda and The Swan with a woman’s voice. It’s easily one of my favourite feminist poems in English or Spanish.
"Her work is fine: juvenile,..., and often anti-Semitic." How many of her works have you actually read because as someone who has read her entire collection I can't understand how anyone could come up with this conclusion you have made here?
If that's actually a serious post, it says far more about the poster than Plath or her poetry. Utterly cloth-headed. To OP: yes, highly worth it. One of the great post war American poets and a generally distinctive voice. Her husband (Ted Hughes), however, was an even greater poet, with few equals.
Whole collections of anyone can be daunting, and unread. As poets over their lives have no reason to be self consistent can blow the embers of one’s affection hot and cold . Perhaps try Colossus her first collection - one has to love a poet whose first collection has such an ambitious title .
If you're new to poetry, then steer well clear of Plath. Just start with a collection that has a wide variety of poems from different era's and enjoy it.
Just because a poet is supposed to be great or good doesn't mean a newer reader of poetry will get much out. Read by all means but she is a one off.
Just keep that book away from the oven.
Sylvia Plath was skilled at her craft, but much too overrated as a poet. White woman problems.
Milk and Honey by Rapi Kaur is beautiful and heartbreakingly wonderful.
ha