Ariel

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Before “Lady Lazarus,” before “Edge,” there was “The Moon and the Yew Tree.” I like to read the three poems as a group. Together they tell a story of despair, anger, and bitter defiance. The poems in the 1965 edition of Ariel, with their free flowing images and characteristically menacing psychic landscapes, marked a dramatic turn from Plath's earlier Colossus poems. Although I didn't grasp most of the poems in this collection, I did really enjoy a few: Sheep in the Fog, Lady Lazarus, Tulips, and The Rival.

Ariel by Sylvia Plath | Poetry Foundation

Critical Analysis of "Ariel" | A Poem by Sylvia Plath". ASKLITERATURE. 11 November 2018 . Retrieved 27 October 2022.

Poetry in Extremis — an analysis of Ariel

And I force myself not to think of her tragic suicide and her mental condition when she wrote these verses. I choose to concentrate on the writer, on the genius, on the creativity which enables suffering to become universal works of art that offer comfort and redemption, on the flowing current of feeling rather than on the scabrous speculations hiding behind Sylvia’s supposed products of madness. Truth is I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsought, some things need to be sensed rather than known, so I decide to surrender to Sylvia’s acidic voice and let the walls of this cage dissolve away and for the briefest of moments, I taste the undistinguishable flavor of exhilarating freedom.

Ariel (poetry collection) - Wikipedia

It is a collection of forty three poems written during several stages of the author’s life reflecting her thoughts on her life and people around her. It also talks about the author’s mental health and the other health conditions. Ariel was the second book of Sylvia Plath's poetry to be published. It was originally published in 1965, two years after her death by suicide.The poem begins to conclude as the reader comes to understand that this ride on Ariel is more than just an accidental brush with disaster; it is a wake-up call, an opportunity (that the speaker takes) to change her way of life. The myth, then, is a diversion from the objective achievement. For the very reason that it has an originality that keeps it apart from any poetic fads. And below her, flakes are falling from her heels. She sees the power of the horse and its ability (through body parts that mirror her own) to carry her wherever it wants. Additionally, as this happens, she is coming apart. Her feet, which are her form of self-transportation, are falling apart. They are shedding their skin, and she is becoming something new.