Ariel

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But because my obsession with Daddy, Lady Lazarus and The Applicant got in the way of my progress with the remaining poems. Ariel’s story is significant in terms of his imprisonment by Prospero and subsequent release, and his supernatural abilities and insights.

Ariel by Sylvia Plath, First Edition - AbeBooks Ariel by Sylvia Plath, First Edition - AbeBooks

I have always assumed that the title poem is about having sex with Ted Hughes, though I found out recently that it's also about her horse. I'm wanting to get into more poetry, but I have to classify books of poetry in two categories: poems I understood, and poems I didn't. That menace carries over into the next bit of description (of the noise) and shift, though another image, into wry helplessness (“I am not Caesar”); at which point a sense of proportion reasserts itself: “They can die … I am the am the owner.

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. Sylvia Plath went on an expedition to a sort of emotional Antarctica, a place most people have heard of but never visited, where you experience love so intensely that it ends up killing you. Known primarily for her poetry, Plath also wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. It is too concentrated and detached and ironic for “confessional” verse, with all that implies of self-indulgent cashing-in on misfortunes; and it is violent without any deliberate exploitation of horrors and petty nastiness. Still, I think this is trash and the only poems I enjoyed (or I dare say understood) are: Lady Lazarus, IV, paralytic, and the Munich mannequins.

Ariel Poem Summary and Analysis | LitCharts Ariel Poem Summary and Analysis | LitCharts

The use of the word “N****r” in this context was not meant as a racial slur but was rather used as a general descriptor of darkness. A very good book in original paperback binding, coming three years after the first British hardover edition. It is controlled, serious verse but her later work shows new strains and pressures at work and becomes a poetry of anguished confession. I thought at first maybe a lack of focus was the issue while I was reading this poetry collection, but as the poems went on, I realized it was just the jumbled, confusing, half-formed poetry.Readers may be surprised to learn that the draft of Ariel left behind by Sylvia Plath when she died in 1963 is different from the volume of poetry eventually published to worldwide acclaim. Plath had suffered from depression for years, but she was at her lowest point after her husband became involved with another woman, and her marriage dissolved.

Ariel (Faber Heritage Poetry Editions) by Sylvia Plath Ariel (Faber Heritage Poetry Editions) by Sylvia Plath

I thirstily swallow these 43 naked poems trying not to choke on their rawness and I unexpectedly find myself dragged by the powerful force of this kaleidoscopic river of white pure waters, red sensual nooks and black nihilist crannies.

I’m fairly sure I don’t have to explain what these topics are, but just in case you aren’t familiar with Plaths work: depression, suicide, family/motherhood, grief and loss of loved ones, miscarriage and more Please, decide for yourself if you’re comfortable reading about these topics at the current place you may be in.