Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath

About Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, MA.

She published poetry and stories during her teen years. Her first published piece was a poem at the age of eight.

Plath began suffering from depression in college. At the age of 19 she attempted suicide. The hospital experience became inspiration for her novel, "The Bell Jar."

She received a grant to study at Cambridge University in England. It was during this time abroad that she met poet Ted Hughes. The couple married in 1956 and had two children, one in 1960 and the other in 1962.

Plath's first collection of poetry, "Colossus," was published in 1960 in England.

When Plath's husband left her for another woman in 1962, she went into a deep depression. It was during this winter that she wrote most of the poems in her most famous book, "Ariel." This collection of poems was published after her death.

Sylvia Plath committed suicide using her gas oven on February 11, 1963.

Interesting facts about Sylvia Plath

  1. She kept a journal from the age of 11.
  2. She graduated summa cum laude from Smith College.
  3. Plath knew her husband, poet Ted Hughes, for less than six months before they married.
  4. The Bell Jar was published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas.
  5. Gwyneth Paltrow starred in the 2003 biopic, Sylvia, which was the story of Sylvia Plath's life.
  6. Plath was the first poet to win a Pulitzer Prize posthumously. The Collected Poems received the prize in 1982.

References

    Poems by Sylvia Plath

  • Daddy

    Famous Poem

    in Famous Family Poems

    You do not do, you do not do
    Any more, black shoe
    In which I have lived like a foot
    For thirty years, poor and white,

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    • Stories 0
    • Shares 5
    • Favorited 0
    • Votes 1
    • Rating 5.00
  • Tulips

    Famous Poem


    in Famous Sad Poems

    The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.
    Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in.
    I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly
    As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands.

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    • Stories 0
    • Shares 503
    • Favorited 10
    • Votes 88
    • Rating 4.65
  • Mad Girl's Love Song

    Famous Poem

    in Famous Sad Love Poems

    "I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
    I lift my lids and all is born again.
    (I think I made you up inside my head.)

    The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
    And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
    I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

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    • Stories 0
    • Shares 1208
    • Favorited 33
    • Votes 260
    • Rating 4.47
    • Poem of the Day
  • Mirror

    Famous Poem

    in Famous Sad Poems

    I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
    Whatever I see I swallow immediately
    Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
    I am not cruel, only truthful,

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    • Stories 3
    • Shares 2218
    • Favorited 35
    • Votes 547
    • Rating 4.27
    Featured Shared Story

    A mirror never lies. It shows what is what exactly. Just as Plath writes: "I am silver and exact". The truth of our mortality is what we keep on negating and the speaker too finds it hard to...

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  • Circus In Three Rings

    Famous Poem

    in Famous Sad Poems

    In the circus tent of a hurricane
    designed by a drunken god
    my extravagant heart blows up again
    in a rampage of champagne-colored rain

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    • Stories 0
    • Shares 645
    • Favorited 8
    • Votes 240
    • Rating 4.28


  • View All Poems by Sylvia Plath

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