Ariel was the second book of Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born in Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer...

's poetry to be published, and was originally published in 1965, two years after her death by suicide. The poems in the 1965 edition of Ariel, with their free flowing images and characteristically menacing psychic landscapes, marked a dramatic turn from Plath's earlier Colossus

The Colossus and Other Poems

The Colossus and Other Poems is a poetry collection by American poet Sylvia Plath, named after the poem The Colossus. It was first published in 1960.-Contents:The 44 poems presented here are in the published order #The Manor Garden...

poems. The distinction often cited by critics between the two books is that there's something much swifter, more abrupt, and more sardonic about the latter.

In the 1965 edition of Ariel, Ted Hughes

Ted Hughes

Edward James Hughes OM , more commonly known as Ted Hughes, was an English poet and children's writer. Critics routinely rank him as one of the best poets of his generation. Hughes was British Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.Hughes was married to American poet Sylvia Plath, from 1956 until...

 changed Plath's chosen selection and arrangement by dropping twelve poems, adding twelve composed a few months later, and shifting the poems' ordering, in addition to including an introduction by Robert Lowell

Robert Lowell

Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV was an American poet, considered the founder of the confessional poetry movement. He was appointed the sixth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress where he served from 1947 until 1948...

. In 2004 a new edition of Ariel was published which for the first time restored the selection and arrangement of the poems as Plath had left them; the 2004 edition also features a foreword by Plath and Hughes' daughter Frieda Hughes

Frieda Hughes

Frieda Rebecca Hughes is an English poet and painter. She has published seven children's books and four poetry collections and has had many exhibitions.-Early life:...

.

Contents (1965 version)

Poems marked with an * were not in Plath's original manuscript, but were added by Ted Hughes. Most of them date from the last few weeks of Plath's life.

1. Morning Song
2. The Couriers
3. Sheep in Fog *
4. The Applicant
5. Lady Lazarus
   Lady Lazarus
   "Lady Lazarus" is a poem written by Sylvia Plath, originally collected in the posthumously published volume Ariel, and is commonly used as an example of her writing style. Plath describes the speaker's oppression with the use of World War II Nazi Germany allusions and images. It is known as one of...
   
   
6. Tulips
   Tulips (poem)
   "Tulips" is a poem by American poet Sylvia Plath. The poem was written in 1961 and included in the collection Ariel published in 1965.-Style and Structure:...
   
   
7. Cut
8. Elm
9. The Night Dances
10. Poppies in October
11. Berck-Plage
12. Ariel
    Ariel (poem)
    "Ariel" is a poem written by the American poet Sylvia Plath. It was written on October 12, 1962, shortly before her death, and published posthumously in the collection Ariel in 1965, of which it is the namesake. Despite its ambiguity, it is literally understood to describe an early morning...
    
    
13. Death & Co.
14. Lesbos - (This poem is censored in some conservative publications)
15. Nick and the Candlestick
16. Gulliver
17. Getting There
18. Medusa
19. The Moon and the Yew Tree
20. A Birthday Present
21. Mary's Song * (only in US version)
22. Letter in November
23. The Rival
24. Daddy
    Daddy (poem)
    "Daddy" is a poem written by American poet Sylvia Plath. It was written on October 12, 1962, shortly before her death, and published posthumously in Ariel in 1965. The poem's implications and thematic concerns have been discussed academically with differing conclusions...
    
    
25. You're
26. Fever 103°
27. The Bee Meeting
28. The Arrival of the Bee Box
29. Stings
30. The Swarm * (only in US version)
31. Wintering
32. The Hanging Man *
33. Little Fugue *
34. Years *
35. The Munich Mannequins
    The Munich Mannequins
    "The Munich Mannequins" is a poem by Sylvia Plath which recounts Plath's experience of insomnia on a trip to the titular German city. The poem is famous for its opening line and for referring to conservative Munich as the "morgue between Paris and Rome."...
    
    
36. Totem *
37. Paralytic *
38. Balloons *
39. Poppies in July *
40. Kindness *
41. Contusion *
42. Edge *
43. Words *

Additional poems in her manuscript

1. The Rabbit Catcher
2. Thalidomide
3. Barren Woman
4. A Secret
5. The Jailer
6. The Detective
7. Magi
8. The Other
9. Stopped Dead
10. The Courage of Shutting-Up
11. Purdah
12. Amnesiac
13. Wuthering Heights

External links

• Slate.com article about publication of restored Ariel
• collection of articles on the new edition
• After Ariel: Celebrating the poetry of the women's movement by Honor Moore in the Boston Review
  Boston Review
  Boston Review is a bimonthly American political and literary magazine. The magazine covers, specifically, political debates, literature, and poetry...