The Collected Poems

by Sylvia Plath

Other authorsTed Hughes (Editor)
Paper Book, 1981

Status

Available

Tags

Publication

New York : Harper & Row, c1981.

Description

Contains in sequence all the poetry written by the author from 1956 until her suicide in 1963, together with fifty selections from her pre-1956 work.

User reviews

LibraryThing member RachelWeaver
What else can be said about this poor woman that hasn't been said before ad nauseum? Her poetry continues to speak volumes on its own. Gorgeous, life-shattering work. As is the cliche, I read her first in my melancholy teens, but she has echoed within me ever since. She is the reason I still read
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and love poetry, the reason I know that poetry can transform you.
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LibraryThing member jennaelf
This is a beautiful collection of Plath's poetry. While the poems themselves are hit and miss, there's little denying the skill displayed there. My 5-star rating is related to the cross-section where the quality of her work meets the format of the book.

This is a chronological collection, presenting
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her poetry in the order it was written - not in an order she set for it in a collection (such as was the case for The Colossus and Ariel), nor in an order reshuffled by a secondary set of hands after her death. There are some notes in the back for some of the poems - an exhaustive annotated version might be even better, but would get quickly unwieldy, in light of the amount of journals we have extant from Plath's life.
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LibraryThing member honkytonkgirl
I read this book so much in college that the spine broke. I bought it used, so it wasn't in perfect shape even then. It is well-used and well-loved. I go back to Plath when I want to be awed by craft and emotion. Brilliant work!
LibraryThing member abirdman
Valuable. Plath is one of the foremost women poets of the 20th century. This book is full of poetic treasure, though I would like to have seen it edited and designed better.
LibraryThing member basiltherat
“Love is a shadow.
How you lie and cry after it
Listen: these are its hooves: it has gone off, like a horse.”

This is Plath’s poetry. Sad, depressing & heart wrenching.
If you are not in are in the middle of a tragic love affair or on the verge of breaking up; or if you are a sensitive soul,
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prone to being sucked in to a depressive literary spiral, stay away! Otherwise, wallow and weep, and come away knowing your life is better.
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LibraryThing member lachatte
If she would have just hung on a year or two longer.
LibraryThing member RachelWeaver
What else can be said about this poor woman that hasn't been said before ad nauseum? Her poetry continues to speak volumes on its own. Gorgeous, life-shattering work. As is the cliche, I read her first in my melancholy teens, but she has echoed within me ever since. She is the reason I still read
Show More
and love poetry, the reason I know that poetry can transform you.
Show Less
LibraryThing member LarrySouders
Sylvia Plath did not win the Pulitize Prize undeservedly.
LibraryThing member AK_Doug
This is my favorite collection of poems. I read it during my melancholy teenage years, and I always felt better. It is impossible to read this and not find a poem that will be one of your favorites.
LibraryThing member readernerdfighter721
Wonderful. One of my favorite authors.
LibraryThing member jarvenpa
Plath cut through the poetic drowse of the 60's like a knife. I first read her in mimeographed handouts, and then in a spread in the New Yorker..but by then she was dead. Precision, a great ear, a great mythos.
LibraryThing member AliceAnna
I really like her later work better and her domestic-themed poems are truly the best with one exception, "Daddy." Not a happy camper; it's truly not surprising to me that she finally succumbed to depression and killed herself. Favorites - "Metaphors," "Cat," "Daddy," "Lesbos," "Lady Lazurus," etc.
LibraryThing member DanielSTJ
This was an intriguing and interesting collection of poetry. While many of them did not resonate with me, those that did were powerful and encompassing in their scope. Plath was a good poet, and she understood (and applied) her techniques and skill-set well. Who knows what she would have written
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had she not met her tragic fate.

3 stars- worth reading!
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Awards

Pulitzer Prize (Winner — Poetry — 1982)

Language

Barcode

6427
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