Ariel (Plath)

Ariel was the last book of poetry written by Sylvia Plath during her lifetime. It was published posthumously in 1965.

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It has been the cause of much controversy among feminist critics. At the time of Plath's death, she left a nearly completed manuscript entitled Ariel and Other Poems. The version that was published was similar but not identical: some poems were trimmed to reduce what her husband Ted Hughes considered to be redundancy, and additional poems composed in her final weeks were added to the manuscript. Some critics consider this to be an intrusion upon her intent, while other critics note that even at that late date Hughes and Plath frequently helped edit each other's work.

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