Plath: Poems Selected by Diane Wood Middlebrook

by Plath, Sylvia; Middlebrook, Diane Wood

• ISBN13: 9780375404641
• ISBN10: 0375404643
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-10-13
• Publisher: Everyman's Library

Summary

A representative selection of verse by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who left in the wake of her personal tragedy a legacy of poems that combine terrifying intensity and dazzling artistry. With their brutally frank self-exposure and emotional immediacy, Plath's poems, from "Lady Lazarus" to "Daddy," have had an enduring influence on contemporary poetry.

Author Biography

Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 in Massachusetts. She began publishing poems and stories as a teenager and by the time she entered Smith College had won several poetry prizes.  She was a Fulbright Scholar in Cambridge, England, and married British poet Ted Hughes in London in 1956.  The young couple moved to the States, where Plath became an instructor at Smith College, and had two children.  Later, they moved back to England, where Plath continued writing poetry and wrote <b>The Bell Jar</b>, which was first published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas in England in 1963.  On February 11, 1963, Plath committed suicide.  <b>The Bell Jar</b> was first published under her own name in the United States by Harper & Row in 1971, despite the protests of Plath's family.  Plath's <b>Collected Poems</b>, published posthumously in 1981, won the Pulitzer Prize.

Table of Contents

JUVENILIA	15	(12)
Jilted	15	(1)
Bluebeard	16	(1)
Trio of Love Songs	17	(3)
Lament	20	(1)
Two Lovers and a Beachcomber by the Real Sea	21	(2)
Epitaph in Three Parts	23	(4)
1956	27	(20)
Channel Crossing	27	(2)
Ode for Ted	29	(1)
Song for a Summer's Day	30	(1)
Two Sisters of Persephone	31	(2)
Faun	33	(1)
Letter to a Purist	34	(1)
Alicante Lullaby	35	(1)
Wreath for a Bridal	36	(1)
Fiesta Melons	37	(1)
Spider	38	(2)
Spinster	40	(2)
Black Rook in Rainy Weather	42	(5)
1957	47	(18)
Hardcastle Crags	47	(3)
The Lady and the Earthenware Head	50	(2)
All the Dead Dears	52	(2)
The Disquieting Muses	54	(3)
Ouija	57	(2)
On the Decline of Oracles	59	(2)
Snakecharmer	61	(4)
1958 Mussel Hunter at Rock Harbor	65	(6)
1959	71	(24)
The Bull of Bendylaw	71	(1)
Suicide off Egg Rock	72	(1)
Metaphors	73	(1)
Electra on Azalea Path	74	(2)
The Beekeeper's Daughter	76	(1)
Man in Black	77	(1)
The Colossus	78	(2)
Poem for a Birthday	80	(10)
1 Who	80	(1)
2 Dark House	81	(2)
3 Maenad	83	(1)
4 The Beast	84	(1)
5 Flute Notes from a Reedy Pond	85	(1)
6 Witch Burning	86	(1)
7 The Stones	87	(3)
Mushrooms	90	(5)
1960	95	(8)
You're	95	(1)
The Hanging Man	96	(1)
Stillborn	97	(1)
Candles	98	(5)
1961	103	(22)
Zoo Keeper's Wife	103	(2)
Face Lift	105	(2)
Morning Song	107	(1)
Barren Woman	108	(1)
Heavy Women	109	(1)
In Plaster	110	(3)
Tulips	113	(4)
I Am Vertical	117	(1)
Blackberrying	118	(2)
The Moon and the Yew Tree	120	(2)
Mirror	122	(3)
1962	125	(96)
Three Women: A Poem for Three Voices	125	(18)
Little Fugue	143	(3)
An Appearance	146	(1)
Crossing the Water	147	(1)
Among the Narcissi	148	(1)
Pheasant	149	(2)
Elm	151	(3)
The Rabbit Catcher	154	(2)
Event	156	(2)
The Other	158	(2)
Words heard, by accident, over the phone	160	(1)
Poppies in July	161	(1)
Burning the Letters	162	(3)
For a Fatherless Son	165	(1)
A Birthday Present	166	(4)
The Detective	170	(2)
The Courage of Shutting-Up	172	(2)
The Bee Meeting	174	(4)
The Arrival of the Bee Box	178	(2)
Stings	180	(3)
The Swarm	183	(3)
Wintering	186	(3)
The Applicant	189	(2)
Daddy	191	(4)
Medusa	195	(2)
Fever 103(Degree)	197	(3)
Amnesiac	200	(2)
Cut	202	(2)
By Candlelight	204	(2)
Ariel	206	(2)
Poppies in October	208	(1)
Nick and the Candelstick	209	(2)
Lady Lazarus	211	(4)
Death & Co.	215	(2)
Winter Trees	217	(1)
Childless Woman	218	(3)
1963	221	(18)
Sheep in Fog	221	(1)
The Munich Mannequins	222	(2)
Totem	224	(2)
Child	226	(1)
Paralytic	227	(2)
Gigolo	229	(2)
Mystic	231	(2)
Kindness	233	(1)
Words	234	(1)
Contusion	235	(1)
Balloons	236	(2)
Edge	238	(1)
NOTES ON POEMS 1956-1963	239	(12)
Index of First Lines	251