Quantity:

Trade in Yours

For a �0.97 Gift Card

Learn more

More Buying Choices

Have one to sell? Sell yours here

Sorry, this item is not available in

Image not available for
Colour:

Image not available

See all 2 customer images

Share your own customer images

Search inside another edition of this book

Tell the Publisher!
I�d like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Collected Poems [Paperback]

Sylvia Plath (Author), Ted Hughes (Editor)

4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

RRP:	�17.99
Price:	�11.51 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
Deal Price:
You Save:	�6.48 (36%)
	o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Only 11 left in stock (more on the way).
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.

Want delivery by Tuesday, 28 May? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details

	Amazon Price	New from	Used from
Library Binding	�19.65	--	--
Show # more hardcovers
Show fewer hardcovers
Paperback	�11.51	--	--
Show # more paperbacks
Show fewer paperbacks

Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more.

› See more product promotions

Book Description

Publication Date: 19 Aug 2002

This volume contains all Sylvia Plath's mature poetry written from 1956 up to her death in 1963.

The text is preceded by an introduction by Ted Hughes and followed by notes and comments on individual poems. There is also an appendix containing fifty poems from Sylvia Plath's juvenilia.

'For me, the most important literary event of 1981 has been the publication, eighteen years after her death, of Sylvia Plath's Collected Poems, confirming her as one of the most powerful and lavishly gifted poets of our time.' A. Alvarez in the Observer

This collection was awarded the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; }

This volume contains all Sylvia Plath's mature poetry written from 1956 up to her death in 1963.

The text is preceded by an introduction by Ted Hughes and followed by notes and comments on individual poems. There is also an appendix containing fifty poems from Sylvia Plath's juvenilia.

This collection was awarded the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Frequently Bought Together

Price For All Three: �22.26

Show availability and delivery details

Buy the selected items together

This item: Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath Paperback �11.51
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath Paperback �3.86
Ariel by Sylvia Plath Paperback �6.89

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Journals of Sylvia Plath: Transcribed from …
› Sylvia Plath

4.7 out of 5 stars (9)

Paperback

�12.80
Collected Poems of Ted Hughes
› Ted Hughes

4.9 out of 5 stars (14)

Paperback
Sylvia Plath (Spoken Word) (The spoken Word)
› Sylvia Plath

4.8 out of 5 stars (6)

Audio CD

�7.00
The Bell Jar
› Sylvia Plath

4.5 out of 5 stars (200)

Paperback

�3.86
Ted Hughes - New Selected Poems 1957-1994
› Ted Hughes

4.8 out of 5 stars (4)

Paperback

�9.59
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams, and other …
› Sylvia Plath

5.0 out of 5 stars (4)

Paperback

�6.74

Product details

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Faber and Faber; First U. S. Edition edition (19 Aug 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0571118380
ISBN-13: 978-0571118380
Product Dimensions: 13.8 x 21.7 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Books > Fiction > Poetry & Drama > Poetry > World > American > 20th Century

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Sylvia Plath Page

Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Product Description

Amazon 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."

About the Author

Sylvia Plath (1932-63) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and studied at Smith College. In 1955 she went to Cambridge University on a Fulbright scholarship, where she met and later married Ted Hughes. She published one collection of poems in her lifetime, The Colossus (1960), and a novel, The Bell Jar (1963). Her Collected Poems, which contains her poetry written from 1956 until her death, was published in 1981 and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Ted Hughes (1930-1998) was born in Yorkshire. His first book, The Hawk in the Rain, was published in 1957 by Faber and Faber and was followed by many volumes of poetry and prose for adults and children. He received the Whitbread Book of the Year for two consecutive years for his last published collections of poetry, Tales from Ovid (1997) and Birthday Letters (1998). He was Poet Laureate from 1984, and in 1998 he was appointed to the Order of Merit.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.

First Sentence
Through portico of my elegant house you stalk Read the first page

Explore More
Concordance

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath Paperback
4.5 out of 5 stars (200)

�3.86

Sylvia Plath - Selected Poems (Faber Poetry) by Sylvia Plath Paperback
4.3 out of 5 stars (7)

�6.89

Ariel by Sylvia Plath Paperback
4.2 out of 5 stars (22)

�6.89

Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes Paperback
4.9 out of 5 stars (16)

�7.58

› Explore similar items

Customer Reviews

5 star

4 star

3 star

2 star

1 star

4.9 out of 5 stars

14 reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars

Write a customer review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful

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

By A Customer

Format:Perfect Paperback

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.

Comment |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Spellbinding 28 Jan 2004

By "ten_bob_revolutionary2"

Format:Paperback

It is easy - all too easy - to become obsessed with Plath's real-life mental illness, relationships, demons and ultimate suicide. It's an unfortunate fact of life that an artist dies young and her life is placed in greater prominence than her art - her life BECOMES her art. For this reason Plath is all too often dismissed as a 'feminist poet' (read 'Lesbos' and think again, frankly) and a 'troubled artist' sniffily categorised as a purveyor of 'sixth form poetry'. Christ, how anyone believing this is missing out!

Plath's rich mastery of words lends itself to a jaunty, lyrical style that seems to sing from the page. It adds a compelling immediacy to such intense and intricate poetry as 'Daddy' and 'Lady Lazarus'. Frankly, at her best Plath is a joy to read and a master storyteller - both of her own emotions ('Edge', the final poem in this collection, is perhaps the single most harrowing work of art ever written) and of products of an unnervingly fertile imagination - one so versatile that she evades all stereotypes with a sidestep as neat and sharp as her turn of phrase.

It's not all doom and gloom, either. 'Balloons', despite it's uncertain and chilling pathos, displays a razor sharp wit, while 'You're' offers a sweet, bouncing lullaby to a sweet, bouncing newborn baby - hope and renewal delivered through the birth of a child ('a clean slate/with your own face on'). 'Cut' too, is an incredibly observant and tongue-in-cheek ode to a severed thumb, while 'Three Women' tackles the lives and feelings of three women undergoing three very different childbirths (one gives birth and returns home with her child, another is a young student who gives her 'terrible red girl' up for adoption and another is appalled by her male 'flatness' having miscarried) with such grace and intensity that it is a profoundly moving masterpiece.

I could go on. 'Mirror', 'The Moon and the Yew Tree', 'Fever 103' and 'Insomniac' are all personal favourites, and the Ariel poems alone are utterly life-altering, but there is so much more in this collection - from her Juvenilia through The Colossus to the very last poems - that is testament to the intense and intelligent scope of Plath's poetry, all of which is majestically woven with the threads of language more lyrical and alive than anything else I have ever read.

An introduction from the late Ted Hughes does appear to be somewhat cold and detached, even apathetic to Plath's work, but the poetry beyond will charm and sadden and cheer and astound and enrich read after read, year after year.

A truly essential purchase.

Comment |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Plath is great!! 11 Nov 1998

By A Customer

Format:Perfect Paperback

The largely autobrioghical work of Plath is a major literary addition the canon of female, New England and American poetic traditions. She is truly one of the great American poets of this century, regardless what over intellectualized critics might find to fuss about. It's unfortunate that her work has been somewhat kidnapped by feminist ideologues, who have used it to promote a political agenda it was never intended for. Primary tactic among this is the demonization of Ted Hughes, her husband and poet laureate of Britain (he died recently of cancer), whose brilliant body of work in poetry, children's books, translations of classics and social & literary commentary might be unmatched by any writer in English this century. Plath's beautiful, poignant sometimes searing poetry stands tall in it's own write, well above the political affectations lesser readers might want to put on it.

Comment |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

› See all 14 customer reviews (newest first) on Amazon.co.uk

Write a customer review

Would you like to see more reviews about this item?

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 45 reviews 4.9 out of 5 stars

Were these reviews helpful? Let us know

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant

I cried my eyes out. Sylvia Plath is spectacular. Hers is the most original poetry by a female voice since Emily Dickenson.

Published 1 month ago by Virgilia

4.0 out of 5 stars Expressions of Inner turmoil

I have read many of the poems by Ted Hughes and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It is clear that she was a very disturbed lady but was able to express her feelings wonderfully in... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Mr. E. W. Palmer

5.0 out of 5 stars Great item

This book was better than expected from its description. The seller was a great communicator and a more than honest describer of the book. Read more

Published on 17 Jan 2011 by Mr. Bryan North

4.0 out of 5 stars collected poems sylvia plath

I was trying to enlighten myself with this book. the poetry is lovely but really all quite downbeat, even the love poems. obviously a troubled soul

Published on 13 July 2010 by sarah adams

5.0 out of 5 stars Delighted

Bought this for a Xmas gift. The recipient was delighted. I thought the transaction entirely satisfactory.

Published on 3 Jan 2010 by E. MCARDLE

5.0 out of 5 stars Underestimated - magnificent

Collected Plath and Collected Hughes should be read and enjoyed alongside one another. Plath's development as a writer is a fascinating study in itself. Read more

Published on 11 Oct 2007 by Ms. Felicia Davis-burden

5.0 out of 5 stars Deep,profound,and delightfully disturbing

By reading this book you are entering the world of Sylvia Plath.Her happiness and her depression.Poems like "The Ghosts Leavetaking","Daddy",and... Read more

Published on 30 Jun 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Overall, Plath is an amazing Poet

The book is very complete, and shows the incredable amount of tallent that Plath possessed.

Published on 15 Jun 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a spiritual bath, cleansing every part.

This book is a collection of all her poetry written from 1956-1963, and also contains some work which she wrote as a student, before 1956. Read more

Published on 8 April 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars A not to be missed collection of this great poet.

Sylvia Plath's poetry ranges from exuberant to searingly painful. Ted Hughes, her husband and one of formost poets and critics in the English language, has done a masterful job in... Read more

Published on 19 Nov 1998

.jsOffDisplayBlock { display: block; } .jsOffDisplayInline { display: inline; } .jsOffVisibility { visibility: visible; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jsOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jqOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jqOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jqOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; }