Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 27, 1932. Her mother, Aurelia Schober, was master’s student at Boston University when she met Plath’s father, Otto Plath, who was her professor. In January of 1932 they were married. Sylvia’s father taught German and biology, with a focus on apiology, which is the study of bees. Her father died when she was eight years old because of complications from diabetes. Otto had been a very strict father, his authoritarian attitude and his death drastically defined her relationships and her poems. This is seen in her graceful and legendary poem, “Daddy.” In her youth, she was impractically driven to succeed. From the age of 11she kept a journal and she published her poems in regional magazines and newspapers. After graduating from high school, her first national publication was in the Christian Science Monitor in 1950. She enrolled at Smith College in 1950. She was an exceptional student in college. In 1953, she went through a deep depression and attempted suicide. In 1955, she managed to graduate summa cum laude. Plath moved to Cambridge, England after her graduation on a Fulbright Scholarship. She attended a party and met the English poet, Ted Hughes in the early part of 1956. They were shortly married on June 16, 1956. In 1957, she returned to Massachusetts and began studying with Robert Lowell. Her first collection of poems, Colossus, was published in England in 1960. It was then published in the United States two years later. She returned to England and gave birth to their two children, Freida in 1960 and Nicholas Hughes in 1962. Her husband, Ted Hughes, left Plath for Assia Gutmann Wevill. That winter, Plath went into a deep depression. She wrote most of the poems that would comprise her most famous book, Ariel, during these times. Plath published a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, in 1963 under the alias Victoria Lucas. During one of the worst English winters on record, on February 11, 1963, she wrote a note to her neighbor downstairs instructing him to call the doctor, then she committed suicide using her gas oven. Her poetry is often associated with the Confessional movement and compared to poets such as her teacher, Robert Lowell and a fellow student Anne Sexton. Frequently, her work is singled out for the strong connection of its brutal images and its playful use of sound repetition and rhyme. Colossus was published while she was alive. Plath was a productive poet. In addition to Ariel, Hughes published three other volumes of her work retrospectively, including The Collected Poems. The Collected Poems was the recipient of the 1982 Pulitzer Prize. Plath was the first poet to win a Pulitzer Prize after death.
"Sylvia Plath." Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More. Web. 12 Apr. 2011.
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