Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer. She married fellow poet Ted Hughes in 1956 and they lived together first in the United States and then England, having two children together: Frieda and Nicholas. After suffering from depression from the age of 20 and a marital separation, Plath committed suicide in 1963. Controversy continues to surround the events of her life and death, as well as her writing and legacy.
Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for her two published collections: The Colossus and Other Poems and Ariel. In 1982, she won a Pulitzer Prize posthumously, for The Collected Poems. She also wrote The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her death.
Read more about Sylvia Plath: Works, Hughes Controversy
Famous quotes by sylvia plath:
“You flicker. I cannot touch you.
I put my hands among the flames. Nothing burns.
And it exhausts me to watch you
Flickering like that, wrinkly and clear red, like the skin of a mouth.”
—Sylvia Plath (1932–1963)
“Each dead child coiled, a white serpent,
One at each little
Pitcher of milk, now empty.”
—Sylvia Plath (1932–1963)
“You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years,”
—Sylvia Plath (1932–1963)
“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my eyes and all is born again.”
—Sylvia Plath (1932–1963)
“Daddy, I have had to kill you.”
—Sylvia Plath (1932–1963)