Sylvia Plath's Poetry and Prose

New New books on writing poetry. Highlights of Poetry. Index of poetry. How to Write Poetry. New Books read.

How to write specific forms:
Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka. Tanka surveys.
Concrete. Ghazal. Lai. Pantoum. Prose poem. Rondeau. Rubáiyát.
Sestina. Skaldic verse. Sonnet. Terza rima. Triolet. Tritina. Villanelle.

Poet peers: Delmore Schwartz. Elizabeth Bishop.
John Berryman. Randall Jarrell. Robert Lowell. Sylvia Plath.

J. Zimmerman. J. Zimmerman (haiku). J. Zimmerman (tanka).

Time Line.

1932

Born in Boston, Massachusetts , USA.

1940

Death of her father, Otto Plath (5 November 1940).

1950

Freshman at Smith College.

1953

First suicide attempt.

1955

Graduated from Smith College.

Fulbright Scholarship.

1956

Married the English poet Ted Hughes (16 June 1956).

1957

Taught at Smith College.

1958

Dismisses confessional poetry as being written "As if poetry were some kind of therapeutic public purge or excretion" [p. 246 of The Wounded Surgeon by Adam Kirsch].

1960

Published The Colossus and Other Poems.

1961

Miscarriage.

1962

Separated from Ted Hughes.

Deliberately burned and destroyed Ted Hughes papers.

1963

Died.

1965

Posthumous publication of Ariel.

1981

Posthumous publication of The Collected Poems.

1982

First poet to win a Pulitzer Prize posthumously (for The Collected Poems).

2005

One of six poets in The Wounded Surgeon by Adam Kirsch:

Buy 'The Wounded Surgeon' by Adam Kirsch

Links and Books.

Links and Books.

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