Ariel by Sylvia Plath - review

'The book is an insight into her mind, as I feel poetry is to any poet'


Scoutingforbooks
Wednesday 3 December 2014 09.00 GMT

Ariel by Sylvia Plath is a book of poems dominated by the idea of death, suicide and sadness, which, unfortunately, seems to be what you would imagine was on Plath's mind at the time, as she soon ended her time on this earth (hopefully an ending she did not regret). The book is an insight into her mind, as I feel poetry is to every poet (poetry is one of the most expressive forms of writing).

There are many poems in the book, but, unfortunately I am unable to write about all of them, so I will write about some of the most interesting, mind boggling and beautiful of them, to me to say the least as I am the beholder and will share the beauty I have found within these poems, the book.

Elm; a two paged insight into life, the pure horridness of it, of this, what we're all doing now, just… living, though we do not all see life in this life we must notice some people do, and try to understand why, which if you really look into it, is not the hardest thing to do, one line from this poem really shows the true sad beauty of its meaning, to me at least, and anybody who has the sense to realise this small truth: "I have started the atrocity of sunsets. Scorched to the roots".

Then there's 'Lady Lazarus', not a poem I'm obsessed with or I love to the end, but it is one line from the poem which I truly love, I'm not sure why it's got this kind of funny brutality to it, someone else might not even notice it but to me it shimmers in the poem, like a gleaming light.

"Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well".

I give this book a 8/10 for its sheer greatness.

THE GUARDIAN