Top 6 - Sylvia Plath

Now that some of the hysteria over Sylvia's death is diminishing, the demonisation of Ted perhaps not quite as shrill as it used to be, it's becoming more possible to see what was what.

Sylvia was an intense, intensely creative person and although the subsequent death of Assia Weevil do still make Ted look somewhat 'homme fatale', it does look to me as if her husband's early success upset Sylvia's competitive nature, top Fulbright scholar and all that she was. Her first book, The Colossus, is where I want to start in search of her best poems. The title poem, eponymously enough called The Colossus, and Spinster are enervated, controlled and powerful pieces that make her look potentially an even better poet than Ted, especially considering where Ted's went with Crow and subsequently. Both express neuroses but objectify them wonderfully and suggest that there was disturbance enough going on before Ted arrived to take all the blame.

All the Dead Dears and Hardcastle Crags make one wonder how much Ted was learning from her. Sinister and passionate, they have dimensions that his nature red in tooth and claw perhaps don't achieve.

The two posthumous volumes published after her death include the title poem Crossing the Water, which was a major teenage favourite of mine and I find it hasn't lost much of its power.

So I find that I don't have room for very many from the most famous book, Ariel, that gets the most attention but I can't in all conscience leave out Daddy.