Ariel, first published in 1965, contains many of Sylvia Plath's best-known poems
, written in an extraordinary burst of creativity just before her death in 1963.
Including poems such as 'Lady Lazarus', 'Edge', 'Daddy' and 'Paralytic', it was
the first of four collections to be published by Faber & Faber. Ariel is the vo
lume on which Sylvia Plath's reputation as one of the most original, daring and
gifted poets of the twentieth century rests.
"Since she died my mother has be
en dissected, analysed, reinterpreted, reinvented, fictionalized, and in some ca
ses completely fabricated. It comes down to this: her own words describe her bes
t, her ever-changing moods defining the way she viewed her world and the manner
in which she pinned down her subjects with a merciless eye." (from Frieda Hughes
' introduction to Ariel).
