Ariel (Plath)

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Ariel is the second book of Sylvia Plath's poetry to be published, in 1965, two years after her death by suicide; most of the poems included in it had been selected by her.

It has been the cause of much controversy among feminist critics. At the time of Plath's death, she left a nearly completed manuscript entitled Ariel and Other Poems. The version that was published was similar but not identical: some poems were trimmed to reduce what her husband Ted Hughes considered to be redundancy, and additional poems composed in her final weeks were added to the manuscript. Some critics consider this to have been an intrusion upon her intent, while others note that even at that late date Hughes and Plath frequently helped edit each other's work.

[edit] Contents (1965 version)

Poems marked with a * were not in Plath's original manuscript, but were added by Hughes. Most of them date from the last few weeks of Plath's life.

1. Morning Song
2. The Couriers
3. Sheep in Fog *
4. The Applicant
5. Lady Lazarus
6. Tulips
7. Cut
8. Elm
9. The Night Dances
10. Poppies in October
11. Berck-Plage
12. Ariel
13. Death & Co.
14. Lesbos
15. Nick and the Candlestick
16. Gulliver
17. Getting There
18. Medusa
19. The Moon and the Yew Tree *
20. A Birthday Present
21. Mary's Song * (only in US version)
22. Letter in November
23. The Rival
24. Daddy
25. You're
26. Fever 103°
27. The Bee Meeting
28. The Arrival of the Bee Box
29. Stings
30. The Swarm * (only in US version)
31. Wintering
32. The Hanging Man *
33. Little Fugue *
34. Years *
35. The Munich Mannequins
36. Totem *
37. Paralytic *
38. Balloons *
39. Poppies in July *
40. Kindness *
41. Contusion *
42. Edge *
43. Words *

[edit] Additional poems in her manuscript

1. The Rabbit Catcher
2. Thalidomide
3. Barren Woman
4. A Secret
5. The Jailor
6. The Detective
7. Magi
8. The Other
9. Stopped Dead
10. The Courage of Shutting-Up
11. Purdah
12. Amnesiac

[edit] External links

• Slate.com article about publication of restored Ariel
• image of book cover
• collection of articles on the new edition
• Defense of the publication of the new edition by Plath's daughter in the Guardian, November 13, 2004
• Charlotte Crofts (1995), ""The Peanut Crunching Crowd" in the work of Sylvia Plath: Holocaust as Spectacle?" vol. 1, no. 1, Autumn (an article on Plath's use of holocaust imagery in 'Daddy' and 'Lady Lazarus' amongst other poems).