Sylvia Plath

A complicated personality, Sylvia Plath's confessional poetry has inspired song settings from composers Ned Rorem and Juliana Hall to Lori Laitman and Ricky Ian Gordon.

Photo: Sylvia Plath, taken by Bettman.

Print This Page

About

“In the six months before her suicide in a London flat, Sylvia Plath produced poems of shocking intensity at a fever pitch; collected in Ariel (1965), these won her enduring posthumous fame. Born in Massachusetts and educated at Smith College, Plath had crossed the Atlantic with her English husband, the poet Ted Hughes; he and two young children survived her. Among Plath’s other popular works is The Bell Jar, (1963) an autobiographical novel.

–from The Poetry Foundation’s website

Related Information

Songs

Support us and help us grow

Dear friends, Thank you for helping us build a comprehensive online archive of American song. Your gift is greatly appreciated.