Sylvia Plath
1932–1963 · American (Boston/London) · Confessional Poetry
Known for: Supreme confessional poet—Ariel, The Bell Jar, 'Daddy,' 'Lady Lazarus'
Sylvia Plath was a straight-A student, Fulbright scholar, and ferociously ambitious writer who married Ted Hughes, the future Poet Laureate of England. Their marriage was passionate and destructive. After Hughes left her for another woman, Plath wrote the poems of Ariel—her masterpiece—in a white-hot burst of creativity.
She killed herself at 30, leaving the oven on while her children slept in the next room. The posthumous publication of Ariel made her the most famous woman poet since Dickinson. Her fusion of personal trauma with classical control influenced every subsequent woman poet.
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