Ariel : Perennial Classics Edition

Plath eventually ends her life by commiting suicide in a dramatic way: sticking her head in an oven and leaving it there. It was her third suicide attempt, and the other two were pretty dramatic as well. Plath addresses these suicide attempts, and how it felt to survive the other two, in one of her most famous poems from Ariel, "Lady Lazarus": "I have done it again./ One year in every ten/ I manage it-/ A sort of walking miracle/ my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade.../ And I a smiling woman/ am only thirty./ And like the cat I have nine times to die./ This is Number Three./ What a trash/ To annihilate each decade.../ Dying Is an art,/ like everything else/I do it exceptionally well./ Herr God, Herr Lucifer Beware/ Beware./ Out of the ash/ I rise with my red hair/ And I eat men like air."

The Nazi theme continues in Plaths poem "Daddy", in which she accuses her father of being similar to Hitler, and compares her husband to her father as well, writing about how they both had negative influences in her life. "I have always been sacred of you,/ With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo./ And your neat mustache/ And your Aryan eye, bright blue./ Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You-/ Not God but a swastika/ So black no sky could squeak through./ Every woman adores a Fascist,/ The boot in the face, the brute/ Brute heart of a brute like you..../ I was ten when they buried you./ At twenty I tried to die/ And get back, back, back to you./ I thought even the bones would do./ But they pulled me out of the sack, And they stuck me together with glue./ And then I knew what to do./ I made a model of you, A man in black with a Meinkampf look/ And a love of the rack and the screw./ And I said I do, I do./ So daddy, Im finally through./ If Ive killed one man, Ive killed two-/ The vampire who said he was you/ And drank my blood for a year,/ Seven years, if you want to know./ Daddy, you can lie back now."

These are two of the most well-known examples of the bleakness but truthfulness in Plaths poetry. They reach toward the human emotions everyone knows- pain, sorrow, bitterness, lonliness. However, Plath also wrote some humourous and sweet poems which are included in Ariel, including poems about her children and good memories. These poems add a lightness to the book which is otherwise dark and dreary. Although the reader is tempted to hate a book filled with such depressing poetry, no one can resist loving it. This book is, in my opinion, one of the best poetry volumes of Twentieth Century American Literature, and it will find a place in your heart. If you have not read Ariel, I greatly recommend it. Through the autobiographical poems found within it you will connect with Plaths disillusionment and also come to know a great deal about the poetic genius troubled life and last days.

"Ariel" is my first Plath exposure. I am planning on reading her diary entries and, hopefully, the movie that is based on her life with her husband, Ted Hughes. I cannot wait. I am anxious for one reason: I have never been more affected by a collection of poems than this book. Every line was dripping in her emotion, in her feeling. I was shocked. I was blown away at her passionate hate towards one thing and complete adoration for another. It was beautiful, but sad at the same time.

One poem that stood out to me was "Daddy." In this she expresses her anger towards her father, comparing him to the Nazis. "I thought every German was you." I could just sense her passionate dissapointment and dislike. She really showed us all through this work that she really is one of the classics of this century. Other poems that stood out to me include "Tuilips", "Death and Co." and "Poppies In July."

Bottom Line: By far my favorite poet and this is of course my favorite collection of poetry in existance. (I give it an A+)