The Collected Poems (Perfect Paperback)

by Sylvia Plath (Author), Ted Hughes (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Sylvia Plath died in 1963, and even now her outsize persona threatens to bury her poetry--the numerous biographies and studies often drawing the reader toward anecdote and away from the work. It's a relief to turn to the poems themselves and once more be jolted by their strange beauty, hard-wrought originality, and acetylene anger. "It is a heart, / This holocaust I walk in, / O golden child the world will kill and eat." While the juvenilia and poems written before 1960 that Ted Hughes has included here prefigure Plath's later obsessions, they also enable us to witness her turn from thesaurus-heavy verse to stripped-down art as they gather power through raw simplicity. "The blood jet is poetry. / There is no stopping it," she declares in "Kindness."

Review
Above These Cares
Afternoon On A Hill
The Agnostic
Alms
Amorphous Is The Mind; Its Quality
An Ancient Gesture
The Anguish
The Animal Ball
Apostrophe To Man
The Apple-trees Bud, But I Do Not
Armenonville
As Sharp As In My Childhood, Still
Ashes Of Life
Assault
At Least, My Dear
Aubade
Autumn Chant
Autumn Daybreak
Baccalaureate Hymn
The Ballad Of Chaldon Down
The Ballad Of The Harp-weaver
The Bean-stalk
Being Young And Green
The Betrothal
Black Hair You'd Say She Had, Or Rather
Blight
The Blue-flag In The Bog
The Bobolink
The Buck In The Snow
Burial
By Goodness And By Evil So Surrounded, How Can The Heart
The Cairn
The Cameo
Cap D'antibes
Cave Cantem
Childhood Is The Kingdom Where Nobody Dies
Christmas Canticle
City Trees
The Concert
Conscientious Objector
Counting-out Rhyme
The Courage That My Mother Had
The Curse
Daphne
Dawn
The Death Of Autumn
Deep In The Muck Of Unregarded Doom
Departure
Desolation Dreamed Of
Dirge Without Music
Doubt No More That Oberon
The Dragonfly
The Dream
Dream Of Saba
Druids' Chant
Ebb
Eel-grass
Elaine
Elegy Before Death
English Sparrows
Epitaph
Establishment Is Shocked. Stir No Adventure
Evening On Lesbos
Exiled
The Fawn
Feast
Few Come This Way; Not That The Darkness
First Fig
The Fitting
The Fledgling
'fontaine, Je Ne Boirai Pas De Ton Eau!'
For Pao-chin, A Boatman On The Yellow Sea
For Warmth Alone, For Shelter Only
For You There Is No Song
From A Train Window
From A Very Little Sphinx: 1
From A Very Little Sphinx: 2
From A Very Little Sphinx: 3
From A Very Little Sphinx: 4
From A Very Little Sphinx: 5
From A Very Little Sphinx: 6
From A Very Little Sphinx: 7
The Gardener In Haying-time
God's World
Gone Over To The Enemy Now And Marshalled Against Me
The Goose-girl
Grown-up
Hangman's Oak
The Hardy Garden
The Hawkweed
The Hedge Of Hemlocks
Here In A Rocky Cup Of Earth
How Did I Bear It--how Could I Possibly As A Child
How Naked, How Without A Wall
Humoresque
Huntsman, What Quarry?
Hyacinth
I Woke In The Night And Heard The Wind, ...
I, In Disgust With The Living, Having Read
If It Should Rain--(the Sneezy Moon
If Still Your Orchards Bear
If, In The Foggy Alleutians
Impression: Fog Off The Coast Of Dorset
In The Grave No Flower
Indifference
Inert Perfection
Inland
Intense And Terrible, I Think, Must Be The Loneliness
Intention To Escape From Him
Interim
Invocation To The Muses
Jesus To His Disciples
Journal
Journey
Justice Denied In Massachusetts
Keen
Kin To Sorrow
Lament
The Leaf And The Tree
Lethe
Lines For A Grave-stone
Lines Written In Recapitulation
The Little Ghost
The Little Hill
Look How The Bittersweet With Lazy Muscle Moves Aside
Low-tide
Macdougal Street
Mariposa
Memorial To D.c.: 1. Epitaph
Memorial To D.c.: 2. Prayer To Persephone
Memorial To D.c.: 3. Chorus
Memorial To D.c.: 4. Dirge
Memorial To D.c.: 5. Elegy
Memorial To D.c.: Prologue
Memory Of Cape Cod
Memory Of Cassis
Memory Of England
Men Working
Menses
The Merry Maid
Midnight Oil
Mist In The Valley
Modern Declaration
Moriturus
Mortal Flesh, Is Not Your Place In The Ground?
My Heart, Being Hungry
My Sprirt, Sore From Marching
Never May The Fruit Be Plucked
New England Spring, 1942
No Earthly Enterprise
Nobody Now Throughout The Pleasant Day
Northern April
Not For A Nation
Not So Far As The Forest: 1
Not So Far As The Forest: 2
Not So Far As The Forest: 3
Not So Far As The Forest: 4
Not So Far As The Forest: 5
Nuit Blanche
The Oak-leaves
October--an Etching
Ode To Silence
Of What Importance, O My Lovely Girls, My Dancers, O My
On First Having Heard The Skylark
On The Wide Heath
On Thought In Harness
Over The Hollow Land
The Parsi Woman
Passer Mortuus Est
Pastoral
The Pear Tree
The Penitent
The Philosopher
The Pigeons
The Plaid Dress
The Plum Gatherer
Poem And Prayer For An Invading Army
The Poet And His Book
The Pond
Portrait
Portrait By A Neighbor
Pretty Love, I Must Outlive You
The Princess Recalls Her One Adventure
Pueblo Pot
The Rabbit
Ragged Island
Recuerdo
Renascence
Rendezvous
The Return
The Return From Town
The Road To Avrille
The Road To The Past
Rosemary
Sappho Crosses The Dark River Into Hades
Say That We Saw Spain Die
Scrub
The Sea At Sunset Can Reflect
Second Fig
She Is Overheard Singing
Short Story
The Shroud
Siege
The Singing-woman From The Wood's Edge
Sky-coloured Bird, Blue Wings With No More Spots ...
Small Hands, Relinquish All
The Snow Storm
The Solid Sprite Who Stands Alone
Some Things Are Dark
Sometimes, Oh, Often, Indeed, In The Midst ...
Song
Song
Song For A Lute
Song For Young Lovers In A City
Song Of A Second April
Song Of The Nations
Sonnet
Sonnet In Answer To A Question
Sonnet: 1
Sonnet: 10
Sonnet: 100. Fatal Interview: 31
Sonnet: 101. Fatal Interview: 32
Sonnet: 102. Fatal Interview: 33
Sonnet: 103. Fatal Interview: 34
Sonnet: 104. Fatal Interview: 35
Sonnet: 105. Fatal Interview: 36
Sonnet: 106. Fatal Interview: 37
Sonnet: 107. Fatal Interview: 38
Sonnet: 108. Fatal Interview: 39
Sonnet: 109. Fatal Interview: 40
Sonnet: 11
Sonnet: 110. Fatal Interview: 41
Sonnet: 111. Fatal Interview: 42
Sonnet: 112. Fatal Interview: 43
Sonnet: 113. Fatal Interview: 44
Sonnet: 114. Fatal Interview: 45
Sonnet: 115. Fatal Interview: 46
Sonnet: 116. Fatal Interview: 47
Sonnet: 117. Fatal Interview: 48
Sonnet: 118. Fatal Interview: 49
Sonnet: 119. Fatal Interview: 50
Sonnet: 12
Sonnet: 120. Fatal Interview: 51
Sonnet: 121. Fatal Interview: 52
Sonnet: 122. Sonnets In Memory Of Sacco And Vanzetti: 1
Sonnet: 123. Sonnets In Memory Of Sacco And Vanzetti: 2
Sonnet: 124
Sonnet: 125
Sonnet: 126
Sonnet: 127
Sonnet: 128
Sonnet: 129
Sonnet: 13
Sonnet: 130
Sonnet: 131
Sonnet: 132. Czecho-slovakia
Sonnet: 132. Czecho-slovakia
Sonnet: 134. Three Sonnets In Tetrameter: 1
Sonnet: 135. Three Sonnets In Tetrameter: 2
Sonnet: 136. Three Sonnets In Tetrameter: 3
Sonnet: 137
Sonnet: 138
Sonnet: 139
Sonnet: 14
Sonnet: 140
Sonnet: 141. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 1
Sonnet: 142. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 2
Sonnet: 143. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 3
Sonnet: 144. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 4
Sonnet: 145. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 5
Sonnet: 146. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 6
Sonnet: 147. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 7
Sonnet: 148. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 8
Sonnet: 149. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 9
Sonnet: 15
Sonnet: 150. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 10
Sonnet: 151. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 11
Sonnet: 152. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 12
Sonnet: 153. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 13
Sonnet: 154. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 14
Sonnet: 155. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 15
Sonnet: 156. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 16
Sonnet: 157. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 17
Sonnet: 158. Epitaph For The Race Of Man: 18
Sonnet: 159
Sonnet: 16
Sonnet: 160
Sonnet: 161
Sonnet: 162. Sonnet In Dialectic
Sonnet: 163
Sonnet: 164
Sonnet: 165
Sonnet: 166. Alcestis To Her Husband, Just Before She Dies
Sonnet: 167
Sonnet: 168
Sonnet: 169
Sonnet: 17
Sonnet: 170
Sonnet: 171
Sonnet: 172
Sonnet: 173
Sonnet: 174
Sonnet: 175
Sonnet: 176
Sonnet: 177
Sonnet: 178
Sonnet: 18
Sonnet: 19
Sonnet: 2
Sonnet: 20
Sonnet: 21
Sonnet: 22
Sonnet: 23
Sonnet: 24
Sonnet: 25
Sonnet: 26
Sonnet: 27
Sonnet: 28
Sonnet: 29
Sonnet: 3
Sonnet: 30
Sonnet: 31
Sonnet: 32
Sonnet: 33
Sonnet: 34
Sonnet: 35
Sonnet: 36
Sonnet: 37
Sonnet: 38
Sonnet: 39
Sonnet: 4
Sonnet: 40
Sonnet: 41
Sonnet: 42
Sonnet: 43
Sonnet: 44
Sonnet: 45
Sonnet: 46. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 1
Sonnet: 47. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 2
Sonnet: 48. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 3
Sonnet: 49. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 4
Sonnet: 5
Sonnet: 50. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 5
Sonnet: 51. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 6
Sonnet: 52. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 7
Sonnet: 53. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 8
Sonnet: 54. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 9
Sonnet: 55. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 10
Sonnet: 56. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 11
Sonnet: 57. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 12
Sonnet: 58. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 13
Sonnet: 59. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 14
Sonnet: 6. Bluebeard
Sonnet: 60. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 15
Sonnet: 61. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 16
Sonnet: 62. Sonnets From An Ungrafted Tree: 17
Sonnet: 63
Sonnet: 65
Sonnet: 66. Sonnet To Gath
Sonnet: 67. To Inez Milholland
Sonnet: 68. To Jesus On His Birthday
Sonnet: 69
Sonnet: 69. On Hearing A Symphony Of Beethoven
Sonnet: 7
Sonnet: 70. Fatal Interview: 1
Sonnet: 71. Fatal Interview: 2
Sonnet: 72. Fatal Interview: 3
Sonnet: 73. Fatal Interview: 4
Sonnet: 74. Fatal Interview: 5
Sonnet: 75. Fatal Interview: 6
Sonnet: 76. Fatal Interview: 7
Sonnet: 77. Fatal Interview: 8
Sonnet: 78. Fatal Interview: 9
Sonnet: 79. Fatal Interview: 10
Sonnet: 8
Sonnet: 80. Fatal Interview: 11
Sonnet: 81. Fatal Interview: 12
Sonnet: 82. Fatal Interview: 13
Sonnet: 83. Fatal Interview: 14
Sonnet: 84. Fatal Interview: 15
Sonnet: 85. Fatal Interview: 16
Sonnet: 86. Fatal Interview: 17
Sonnet: 87. Fatal Interview: 18
Sonnet: 88. Fatal Interview: 19
Sonnet: 89. Fatal Interview: 20
Sonnet: 9
Sonnet: 90. Fatal Interview: 21
Sonnet: 91. Fatal Interview: 22
Sonnet: 92. Fatal Interview: 23
Sonnet: 93. Fatal Interview: 24
Sonnet: 94. Fatal Interview: 25
Sonnet: 95. Fatal Interview: 26
Sonnet: 96. Fatal Interview: 27
Sonnet: 97. Fatal Interview: 28
Sonnet: 98. Fatal Interview: 29
Sonnet: 98. Fatal Interview: 30
Sorrow
Souvenir
Spring
The Spring And The Fall
Spring In The Garden
Spring Song
Steepletop: 1
Steepletop: 2
Steepletop: 3
The Strawberry Shrub
The Suicide
Tavern
Thanksgiving Dinner
Theme And Variations: 1
Theme And Variations: 2
Theme And Variations: 3
Theme And Variations: 4
Theme And Variations: 5
Theme And Variations: 6
Theme And Variations: 7
Theme And Variations: 8
There At Dusk I Found You
This Dusky Faith
This Should Be Simple; If One's Power Were Great
This
Three Songs From The Lamp And The Bell: 1
Three Songs From The Lamp And The Bell: 2
Three Songs From The Lamp And The Bell: 3
Three Songs Of Shattering: 1
Three Songs Of Shattering: 2
Three Songs Of Shattering: 3
Through The Green Forest
Thursday
To A Calvinist In Bali
To A Friend Estranged From Me
To A Musician
To A Poet That Died Young
To A Snake
To A Young Girl
To A Young Poet
To Kathleen
To One Who Might Have Borne A Message
To S. M. (if He Should Lie A-dying)
To S.v.b.--june 15, 1940
To The Maid Of Orleans
To The Not Impossible Him
To The Wife Of A Sick Friend
To Those Without Pity
To Whom The House Of Montagu
Travel
Tristan: 1
Tristan: 2
Tristan: 3
Tristan: 4
Truce For A Moment
Truck-garden Market-day
The True Encounter
Two Voices
Underground System
The Unexplorer
Valentine
A Visit To The Asylum
We Have Gone Too Far; We Do Not Know How To Stop: Impetus
Weeds
West Country Song
What Savage Blossom
When Caesar Fell
When It Is Over
When The Tree-sparrows
When The Year Grows Old
Who Hurt You So
Wild Swans
Wild-cat, Gnat And I
Wine From These Grapes
Winter Night
Witch-wife
The Wood Road
Wraith
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 351 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1st U.S. edition (December 23, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060909005
• ISBN-13: 978-0060909000
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #369,430 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #15 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( H ) > Hughes, Ted
  #23 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( P ) > Plath, Sylvia

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Collection details Plath's formidable talent., June 18, 1999

By A Customer

This book is the most complete collection of Sylvia Plath's poetry assembled in one volume. It is for this reason that it belongs almost as required reading, not just in American english programs, but in secondary schools everywhere. It's value lies in it's progression of a female poet and her journey towards finding her true voice. We see the early poems, methodically and skillfully written, shedding style after style of obvious influences through excercises of observation and perserverance. Through these verses, she explores and develops an intricate mythology; by the end, however, she has not lost us in her private world of symbolism and imagery, but enthralls us, heartbreakingly, through the mastery of her words. These last poems, that made up her final manuscript, are undisputedly some of the most moving and beautifully executed compositions of this past century. It is a wonderful book, one that forever changes the way the reader interprets art and the world around him that inspires it.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There is just something about Sylvia Plath, August 25, 2001

By	Nicole Alger "imanoonle" (Belmont, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Gosh, I love Sylvia Plath's prose and poetry. I could read and reread some of her poems again and again. This is a great collection of her poems. I keep this book loose on my bookshelf when I feel like getting shivers up my spine before I go to sleep. There are some poems that I can just read and reread over and over again that make me feel... oh, mysterious, anxious, happy, perplexed... and Sylvia Plath is one of the poets who has written multiple poems that give me those feelings. Most people who like poetry are familiar with Mirror or Daddy, but there are other poems that people don't know about. I loved the sonnet "To Time" and the poem "Mystic." It is interesting to read her poems knowing what she was going through... reading the poems that coincide with certain events in her life, like her marriage to Ted Hughes, and poems that she wrote about her attempted suicides. I suggest this collection to anyone who is interested in this woman... and I also recommend that you read The Bell Jar as you read her poems, or maybe a few of her journal entries. Sylvia Plath is one of those poets that writes about herself, and knowing background on her life is crucial in understanding these poems. Well, you can decide for yourself.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looooooove Sylvia!..., October 31, 2002

By	"siammuse" (Duluth, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews

It doesn't matter what you think about Sylvia Plath; her suicides, dependence on Ted Hughes, the relationship she had with her mother, her poems about "Daddy, the very depth of the darkness she held inside. It doesn't matter a damn. What matters is the writing, the beauty of the words, the music in her voice.
"The Collected Poems" won the Pulitzer. Some may disagree with this choice, but what do they know. Sylvia was a genius.
The poems are from 1956-1963...

"Southern Sunrise" 1956
SP uses the imagery of color- lemon,mango, peach, pinapple barked, green crescent of palms, quartz clear, blue drench, red watermelon sun. One can see she was happy when she wrote this poem. (Probably just met Ted)

"Fiesta Melons" 1956
Bright green and thumpable/Laced over With stripes/
Of turtle-dark green/Choose an egg shape/ a world shape/
Bowl one homeward to taste/ in the whitehot noon

I find it interesting how much SP's poems reveal about her state of mind as she wrote them. One can observe the progression of depression, her troubled marriage and lonliness, especially in the later poems 1960-63...

"Tulips" 1961
I am nobody/I have nothing to do with explosions.
I didn't want any flowers/I only wanted/to lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty.

"The Rival" 1961(About Ted??)
I wake to a mausoleum; you are here/Ticking your fingers on the marble table/looking for cigarettes/Spiteful as a woman, but not so nervous/ And dying to say something unanswerable.

The Moon and the Yew Tree" 1961
Separated from my house by a row of headstones/ I simply cannot see where there is to get to.

"A Birthday Present" 1962 (SP's struggle w/depression)
I would have killed myself gladly that time any possible way/Now there are these veils, shimmering like curtains./
The diaphanous satins of a January window/White as babies' bedding and glittering with dead breath. O ivory!

"Lesbos" 1962 (SP's experimentation w/ lesbianism??)
You say your husband is just no good to you/His Jew Mama guards his sweet sex like a pearl/You have one baby, I have two/I should sit on a rock off Cornwall and comb my hair./ I should wear tiger pants, /I should have an affair/ We should meet in another life,/ we should meet in air/ Me and you.

People are fascinated w/ SP, her confessional poetry, giving us a glimse into her world. We feel as if we know her. And even though she appears strong and nasty at times, we see the sweetness behind it all, the lonliness, and somehow, like Marilyn Monroe, we would have liked to be her friend.

1962-63 were Sylvia's darkest days and it shows in her poetry...

"Sheep in Fog"
The hills step off into whiteness/People or stars/
Regard me sadly,/ I disapoint them.
All morning the / Morning has been blackening.

"Daddy"
If I've killed one man, I've killed two/
The vampire who said he was you/ (ted hughes)
Who drank my blood for a seven years,/ if you want to know/ Daddy you can lie back now./
There's a stake in your fat black heart/ And the villagers never liked you/They are dancing and stamping on you/They always knew it was you/ daddy, you bastard,/ I'm through.

Sylvia Plath is somebody we want to know better, this is why we read her poetry. Although much of it is dark, the music of her voice still crys out with such precision and brilliance that we listen, we learn, and we continue reading the words she left behind.
"Death & Co."
I do not stir.
The frost makes a flower,
The dew makes a star,
The dead bell,
The dead bell.

Someboy's done for.