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The Collected Poems

4.19 of 5 stars 4.19 · rating details · 16,463 ratings · 219 reviews

The aim of the present complete edition, which contains a numbered sequence of the 224 poems written after 1956 together with a further 50 poems chosen from her pre-1956 work, is to bring Sylvia Plath's poetry together in one volume, including the various uncollected and unpublished pieces, and to set everything in as true a chronological order as is possible, so that the...more

Hardcover, 349 pages

Published December 25th 1981 by Turtleback Books (first published January 1st 1981)

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Jan 14, 2008 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Whoo-boy, nobody has given me more trouble than Sylvia Plath. Only Byron may be as difficult in seperating the personality from the work, and with him we at least have a good bit of time since the works were actually written. I half-wonder if anybody can really be objective about her work.
See, she has a group of followers who just about worship her to the point of Tori Amos's fans, where everything she's done is meaningful and perfect. Her suicide date is celebrated. Every word she wrote is put...more

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May 05, 2013 Jonathon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sylvia Plath was super gangsta. She stuck her head in an oven and killed herself. Besides that, she wrote some pretty dope poetry and was super fresh.... (I apologize for writing in outdated youthful urban slang, but I was bored and thought it might spice up these "less-than-mediocre" reviews. I can see now, after closer examination, this was a terrible decision... Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience).

Also.... reading Plath's poems extremely intoxicated on alcoholic beverages can be a...more

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Jan 14, 2008 jack rated it 5 of 5 stars

i keep coming back to plath as a source of inspiration for my own writing or alternately as a reason to never try to write anything again. because, people, she is one of the best. arguably one of the top five american poets of all time.

the only downer of this book is that ted hughes edited it, and he was the piece of shit she killed herself over. so if you want to read the ariel poems in their correct, initially intended order check out the notes in the back for that. why that asshole thought h...more

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Sep 04, 2012 HM rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: poetry

Daddy and The Applicant are among my favorite poems.

اشعار پلات را سعید سعید پور در کتابی دو زبانه تحت عنوان در کسوت ماه -انتشارات مروارید- و همچنین ضیاء موحد به فارسی -مجله ارغنون ویژه شعر- ترجمه و منتشر کرده اند. سیلویا پلات چندی قبل از خودکشی این شعر را سروده است

این زن کامل شده‌ است.
بر تن بیجانش
لبخند توفیق نقش بسته ‌است
از طومار شب جامه‌ی بلندش
توهّم تقدیری یونانی جاری است.
پاهای برهنه‌ی او گویی می‌گویند:
تا اینجا آمده‌ایم دیگر بس است.
هر کودک مرده دور خود پیچیده ‌است
ماری سپید
بر لب تنگ کوچکی از ش...more

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Jan 13, 2011 Jeremy Allan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

First: my rating applies to the edition, not the poetry.

After hacking away at this collected poems for the better part of six months, I'm not sure I have any interest in rating the poems. I think, in part, this is due to a certain experience I had in reading, as if this were a history book or a chronicle rather than a work of literature. Of course, while that reveals something (unsavory?) of my predisposition as a reader, I think it at leaves gives a hint as to how the work struck me.

Whereas the...more First: my rating applies to the edition, not the poetry.

After hacking away at this collected poems for the better part of six months, I'm not sure I have any interest in rating the poems. I think, in part, this is due to a certain experience I had in reading, as if this were a history book or a chronicle rather than a work of literature. Of course, while that reveals something (unsavory?) of my predisposition as a reader, I think it at leaves gives a hint as to how the work struck me.

Whereas the work of other poets of Plath's era, and certainly before, can still touch me in the current moment, as living documents, the majority of this volume felt artifactual, archeological. That is not to say there are not poems that have and continue to hit me in the solar plexus like a sledge — "The Rabbit Catcher," for instance, will likely be a treasured poem for as long as I have a relationship with language. But aside from these highlights, I often had the sensation of reading through an excavation.

In my mind, there is no question of Plath's talent; at moments it terrifies me ("There is no mercy in the glitter of cleavers, / The butcher's guillotine that whispers: 'How's this, how's this?'" — "Totem"). Furthermore, I think there is an abundance to be learned from her that is completely separate from her hypertragic biography. But the biography does haunt her collected poems; it butts its forehead into the reading experience and dulls the ear with its wailing. Certain Plath devotees are liable to put a reader off with their fetishization of her horrible life story; I have been put off in the past. Working past such acolytes, I still sensed their demands in editing of this collected poems.

What am I getting at? What is needed?

A new edition of selected poems. Faber has presented, in this volume, an excellent resource for scholars & collectors. But the truth is that practicing poets, interested outsiders, and casual newcomers have no need for most of what this book offers. We don't need or want the juvenilia that closes the book. Most of the end notes gloss Plath's weird ideas of what the poems were "about," or charts biographical context. And, frankly, many of the poems just aren't good — or, rather, they aren't up to the standards that Plath herself sets in other poems.

What we need is an edition of selected poems, not simply Ariel in one form or another, that judiciously picks from all the work, surrenders biography to anything other than a note on the author, and keeps Ted Hughes many arm lengths away (with all due respect, sir). A sensational life story does not write a poem, and neither does such a biography warrant that we collect and document every scribbling ever written by an author. I say, let Sylvia rest, and let the great poems be revived, free of the shackles that bound their author.

That's a bit dramatic, but you'll have to forgive me — I just finished reading a few hundred pages of Sylvia Plath. (less)

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Oct 06, 2009 Doug rated it 3 of 5 stars

Sylvia Plath... at last I'll spell your name right >_<
My review:
When I approached this book, I did not check the introuctions but, instead, got right into the poetry. I did not want to feel bias towards her stories or her struggle, because if art wishes a story or struggle to be told, it does so. See Oscar Wilde's preface to Dorian Gray for a better explanation. This, as well as the broken formalism in her style, may be the cause for why I don't "get it" as, while I spy on reviews during t...more

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Mar 25, 2011 Esther rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My psychiatrist laughed when I said I read Sylvia Plath, "why do all you young women" etc. I do think part of it is that Sylvia becomes a friend if you go through some of the same stuff she did. Any famous person who shares your condition does. But to say that's all she's good for, as if there's no merit or instruction in her work...

And then, once again, it's back to the emotional Plath -- phrases that crush your head both because they are so well wrought and also because you know exactly what s...more

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Oct 09, 2010 GirlOfTheCrowd rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've taught this collection at A Level and it was a challenging yet enlightening experience. Plath's imagistic, brutal poems are beautiful yet cutting. Our appreciation of her work is certainly heightened by a knowledge of relevant biographical information (her father's death and the effect it had upon her; her marriage to Ted; her psychological and emotional state; her suicide attempts etc) but these poems are engaging literary gems in themselves. Vibrant colour symbolism, aggressive imagery, h...more

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Jun 01, 2011 Jason Lilly rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone who loves poetry

Shelves: favorites, favorite-authors, books-for-teachers, books-for-writers, poetry

It would be an understatement to say that I fell in love with Sylvia Plath. The Bell Jar sank my heart, broke it in two, and revived it again. Her choice of words, even in prose, dance through your mind and are hard to forget.

This is especially true, though, of her poetry. Each poem has a beautiful life of its own, but together as an anthology, the poems show Plath's true heart, fickle, angry, passionate, uninhibited. From the more disturbing poems like "Daddy" to finding eloquent beauty is simp...more

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Jun 08, 2011 Heidi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oh, how I love Sylvia Plath! I realize she's not everyone's cup of tea and that's fine. I think her poetry is brilliant and speaks of her tortured soul. So many of us can relate to the pain that comes through in her words. I find her work inspiring, but sometimes one can wallow along with her be dragged down into her deep sadness.

A tidbit from one of my favorite poems, "Daddy"

Not God but a swastika
So black no sky could squeak through.
Every woman adores a Fascist,
The boot in the face, the brute
B...more

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Jun 22, 2009 Synesthésia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, all-time-favourites

What can be said about this tome? It's one of my absolute favourites, one of the poetry collections that has followed me across the continents over the years, with my sprawling notes gathering in the margins. It is the most complete overview on Plath's poetry, and whereas I'm not the fondest fan of Plath's early work, I am very fond of Crossing the Water and Winter Trees' poems, which shine next to their chronological cousins. This collection shows the bewitching development of one of the world'...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Hugo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Amazing, simply stunning. The raw emotion in her poetry reminds me of older British poetry and the musically of Auden. "Daddy" is probably the one that stayed with me the most, the mythology and imagery are tearing on wounds still open.

You stand at the blackboard, daddy,
In the picture I have of you,
A cleft in your chin instead of your foot
But no less a devil for that, no not
Any less the black man who

Bit my pretty red heart in two.
I was ten when they buried you.
At twenty I tried to die
And get ba...more

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May 17, 2011 Jed Bradley rated it 4 of 5 stars

I decided to read this book because I thought it would have a good varity of poems for me to write a review on.

This book comes under the book of poetry category

What I liked about this book is it is a series of poems, all about different subjects from these two authors that have used a variety of techniques and poetic devices professionally to create great poems and a whole lot of them.

What I didn't like about this book is it malignly stuck to a fixed lenghth and style of poem and did not explore...more

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Aug 22, 2012 Caitlin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-books, favorites, classics, life-changers

Man oh man, if I could give this Collection 6 stars, I would. By reading Sylvia Plath's entire collection of poems, you can fully understand why she made such an impact on this world. I bookmarked so many pages, not wanting to ever forget some of these poems. Almost all of them, really. I just kept repeating, after finishing each poem, "Beautiful. Just beautiful." It's really my first time reading a whole poetry book, and I cannot wait to read more.

I loved seeing the evolution of her poetry thro...more

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Jan 11, 2009 Chetley rated it 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars would be a better rating, but three stars is unjustifiable. Due to personal allegiances and taste, placing Plath at 5 stars and thererby even with Robert Desnos is impossible for me. With that said, Plath is a master. Her use of imagination, original images, perfectly fitted metaphor, persona, and, especially tone is powerful. Emotion is her thing. It seeps out of her poetry, but never alienates the reader, instead, her pain engages the reader. All those High School goths girls out the...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Myles rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poesy-and-drama

I know--I'm a cretin. As much as I love some of these poems, as a whole, this book is exhausting.

I firmly believe that Sylvia Plath was a great artist, in prose as well as poetry. The Bell Jar is one of my favorite novels. Nor do I think that her personality or the legend of her life overpowers her work. What personality could dim the power of "Conversation Among the Ruins", "The Colossus" or "Lady Lazarus"? They are some of her most well-known poems, but they stand out even in this massive col...more

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Jun 30, 2010 Robby rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am fascinated by insanity, instability, depression. People who fall into that hole and never get out, who resurface only to fall right back in. I am fascinated by their stories, how they got there, how things end, and how they get there. Sylvia Plath’s poetry is about all of these things, but also about everything else, and I have always been fascinated by this woman who has been dead for almost 50 years.
She is notorious for many things, her honesty, her imagery, and the way she took her own...more I am fascinated by insanity, instability, depression. People who fall into that hole and never get out, who resurface only to fall right back in. I am fascinated by their stories, how they got there, how things end, and how they get there. Sylvia Plath’s poetry is about all of these things, but also about everything else, and I have always been fascinated by this woman who has been dead for almost 50 years.
She is notorious for many things, her honesty, her imagery, and the way she took her own life. Sealing off her children’s bedroom, she turned on her gas stove and threw her body inside. Before that, while she was in college, she took a slew of sleeping pills and hid under her house. She was always a creative woman, even in those shocking ways. I will be the first to admit, though, that knowing of these things she did only made me more excited to read her poetry.
I have also read the only novel she wrote, the semi-autobiographical The Bell Jar. She published it under the pseudonym of Victoria Lucas, but people knew that it was her. I read it over a year ago, before I began this blog. I did not understand. Someday, I will read it again.
I also attempted to read this collection before, a few summers ago, and I couldn’t. I didn’t understand poetry, meter or rhyme, imagery or meaning. I couldn’t understand her in the slightest and, in a way, I still don’t. But reading Anne Sexton’s poetry before this provided me with an aid, and I am glad to say that I had much more insight this time than I did before. But many things are still a mystery. So I will read it again, in a few months or years time. I will return to this.
Trying to explain Sylvia Plath’s poetry will not be easy. I don’t think I will try. Maybe I’ll just ramble, as I usually do, because I’m not sure how to approach this. In the beginning, though I understand poetry more than I ever have before, I was still very confused. In more ways than one, Sylvia Plath’s poetry is largely inaccessible unless you frequently read poetry, or are a poet yourself. The images in her poems are complex yet, if you look deeply into each and every single poem, it is much easier to relate them to the life of this young woman.
She died when she was 30, maybe only a third of the way through her life. Her life was complicated and chaotic, catastrophic. The poems came only when she was in the midst of something, whether internal or external. But when they did come, they came.
She wrote with the intention of compiling them into a collection. The Colossus & Other Poems, her first collection, was written over the course of many years. She met her husband, she had children, and she was even a teacher for a brief period at her alma mater (Smith College.) She returned to England, her marriage fell apart, and over the course of 7 years, Sylvia wrote hundreds of poems. But Ariel, her second collection which was published posthumously, came quickly over the course of the final months of her life.
She was always writing. Two more collections were published after Ariel, and then this collection was published. It won the Pulitzer Prize, and was the first posthumous publication to do so. She wrote The Bell Jar, and also a collection of short stories. She wrote in journals, which have been published together in another collection. Her life has fascinated millions, and also her poetry.
I just realized that I haven’t been talking about her poetry at all. And honestly, I don’t know how. But I can explain the affect it had on me. I also can’t at all. I will try.
I felt insane. I felt like I was on the edge of a cliff and I had 30 seconds to decide whether or not to jump. I felt like I was about to explode. I was hiding under my house. I was trying to teach a classroom full of children how to write poetry. My marriage was falling apart. I was falling apart.
But also, these poems are about everything. They are about Sylvia, and the world. They are about the reader, and the things they are going through at that exact time. This in a way relates to May Oliver’s poetry, which I am partially making my way through now, but in a completely different way.
I could pick out my favorite poems but, as with Anne Sexton, I couldn’t narrow them down to a meager list. All of these poems have something beautiful, including the Juvenilia and the drafts of poems in the Notes section. Go on Youtube and search Sylvia Plath. Listen to her reading her poems. If I read the poems aloud, in my voice, I had a better understanding. But hearing her voice speaking the words, including the words of the last poem she ever wrote, is haunting and beautiful and perfect.
Sylvia Plath’s poetry is admirable. It is simple and complex at the same time, knocking down all of these boundaries and walls and just plowing through you, the reader. Her word choices are meticulous even though, at times, I felt the need to rush through poems. The pacing was quick and slow and each line led to the next line and the poems all begin and end in a single, swift arc. Her poetry is inspiring. I am already waiting for next summer, so I can come back to this.
When I reread The Bell Jar, I’m sure I will repeat almost all of this. Thanks for making it this far. I’m glad I read this.
Sylvia Plath is one of the poets that will be in Literature forever. Her poem “Mushrooms” is in my English anthology, and is one of the only decent poems in there. But reading it last fall, I knew I had to come back to this collection. And I have, and it was brilliant.
Every single poem in this collection is brilliant, the hundreds of them. If you are a poet, read this. If you are not a poet, read this. If you don’t want to, that doesn’t change anything.(less)

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Jan 27, 2009 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars

the only question i ever buzzed in on during my one high-school quizbowl tournament (walton B team, vanderbilt university tournament, nashville 1999) was about 'the bell jar'. i got it right. that gives me a 100% record in quizbowl. and i love her poem 'the times are tidy', which is in this collection. we'll see how it goes ...

it's impossible for me to read a book of poetry all in one go, no matter its size. it's like trying to drink concentrated fruit juice; you just need something to thin it...more

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Jun 14, 2007 Mme. Bookling ~ rated it 5 of 5 stars

Yes please. This is a fabulous collection of all MzPlath's work. Lady Lazurus is my favorite by far. Shall I list it here? Well, ok.

Lady Lazarus
I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it-----

A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot

A paperweight,
My featureless, fine
Jew linen.

Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?-------

The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.

Soon, soon the flesh
The grave c...more

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Jul 06, 2010 Leanna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well, so I loved this. I'd read it before but it had been 3 or 4 years. Plath definitely starts out more conventional, in her earlier poems. Like most of the rest of her fans, I guess, I fall in love with her around the Ariel period. What is it about her...her musicality, the sharpness of her images, her dark sense of humor, the domestic subject matter, her unique voice, her passion, the readability (for me, that tends to mean some sort of narrative and not too terribly long!).... love love love...more

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Jun 28, 2011 Felicia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: poetry, sylvia-plath

I may not be extensively-read in poetry, but Sylvia Plath's poems reach a place in my soul that is hard to describe. She inspires me in my own poetry writing and she overwhelms with every ounce of emotion that she pours into her poetry. That's what strikes me about Sylvia's poetry. She's not a half-assed poet. Every emotion occurs in a tidal wave that sweeps you away.

Right now this is the only book of hers that I own, but it's one of my most prized possessions.

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Mar 07, 2013 Katherine Simmons rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Even though I enjoyed only a handful of poems I am giving this book 3 stars because for its kind the poems are good just not to my taste.

Annoyingly despite the fact this is meant to contain everything she wrote after a certain time it does not contain my favourite poem of hers and what inspired me to buy this book.

If you know Plath's work then this would be an excellent buy, if not I would recommand the slimmer selected book.

Sadly this is not my choice in poetry, I much prefer Cummings or olde...more

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Aug 11, 2010 Dbohemian rated it 5 of 5 stars

As a poetry fan I rarely encounter books that are worth my attention. I never truly liked short anthologies, nor did I like themed poetry books. This collection is a must for those who appreciate Sylvia Plath not only as a poet, but also as a human being. I often just open this book on a random page and read. The woman, as known to all, was a genius. This book only accentuate this fact, with numerous poems derived from one source of brilliance.

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Dec 02, 2012 Holly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

Although I have long read Plath, this was my first reading of her poems in their entirety, in chronological order. There is something to be said for this edition's rawness in comparison to collections that were more carefully curated, like Ariel and The Colossus. Both forms have their merits, but the sheer expanse of The Collected Poems is a gutting autopsy, rather than a cross section. I have read Plath's journals in segments and am looking forward to a thorough reading to cross reference her p...more

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Feb 11, 2011 Camilla Calvetti rated it 5 of 5 stars

Collected Poems
Sylvia Plath

This collected poems are a sample of the great work of Sylvia Plath. Intimacy, love, the sight of the world and life from those eyes of hers, her expectations and the passion she put in each of her verses.
There are different worlds we can find in this book. It was amazing to find common places with Ted Hughes, some cross roads and feelings, too. In some way, her poetry reminded me of a fresh garden and also a cold night.
It was not easy to let her go. Now I'm diving on...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Christey Foster rated it 5 of 5 stars

A confessionalist poet through-and-through, you really get a sense of the author’s life and feelings while reading her deeply personal poetry. Her effective imagery paired with the true and pure emotions apparent throughout her choice of diction is what makes her a great poet. This book contains Plath’s poetry from her juvenile years and follows her poetry up until her unfortunate death.

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Jan 31, 2010 Eileen rated it 5 of 5 stars

These are beautiful, honest, wrenching poems. They show us life through the lens of a brilliant mind, struggling “to keep reality at bay” and to overcome her inner demons.

They are all haunting, but my thoughts keep coming back to two in particular. In CHILD, Sylvia Plath tells her baby how she would love for his beautiful eyes to reflect only wonderful things rather than the anxious, troubled spirit she has become.

In MIRROR, she personifies a looking glass. Speaking in the first person, she te...more

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Nov 24, 2010 Nina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

These poems are overwhelmingly rich in images and symbols and written in the most beautiful use of the english language i can think of. They open up a whole detailed universe of imaginations and emotions in your mind. Every single poem has left me speechless when i took the time to read it thoroughly (sometimes even aloud or whispering) and let entirely engage myself into it.

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Jul 24, 2010 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Of course I've read poems by Sylvia Plath before, but never a large collection. It's easy to let her biography overshadow her work, but once you read these, it's easy for the work to stand on its own merit and understand why she's so well-respected more than 50 years after her death. Language and imagery here are carefully crafted in a way that is seldom seen.

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Aug 09, 2007 vie rated it 5 of 5 stars

"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. I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane. (I think I made you up inside my head.)
God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade: Exit seraphim and Satan's men: I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I...more

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About Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer.

Known primarily for her poetry, Plath also wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The book's protagonist, Esther Greenwood, is a bright, ambitious student at Smith College who begins to experience a mental breakdown while interning for a fashion magazine in New York. The plot paralle...more

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Trivia About The Collected Poems

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Quotes from Collected Poems

“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my eyes and all is born again.” — 1,093 people liked it

“I?
I walk alone;
The midnight street
Spins itself from under my feet;
My eyes shut
These dreaming houses all snuff out;
Through a whim of mine
Over gables the moon's celestial onion
Hangs high.

I
Make houses shrink
And trees diminish
By going far; my look's leash
Dangles the puppet-people
Who, unaware how they dwindle,
Laugh, kiss, get drunk,
Nor guess that if I choose to blink
They die.

I
When in good humour,
Give grass its green
Blazon sky blue, and endow the sun
With gold;
Yet, in my wintriest moods, I hold
Absolute power
To boycott color and forbid any flower
To be.

I
Know you appear
Vivid at my side,
Denying you sprang out of my head,
Claiming you feel
Love fiery enough to prove flesh real,
Though it's quite clear
All your beauty, all your wit, is a gift, my dear,
From me.

From "Soliloquy of the Solipsist” — 326 people liked it

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