We're celebrating National Poetry Month! Throughout the month of April, poets and poetry will be featured and thanks to JSTOR Daily, links to classic American poets and their poems will be offered as well.
Sylvia Plath's writing career began at the ripe old age of eight when she published her first poem in the children's section of The Boston Herald. Her first national publication came just after high school when her work appeared in The Christian Science Monitor. According to JSTOR Daily, "Syliva Plath was born on October 27, 1932 and in her short life became one of the most influential poets of the era." Plath is best known for her works, The Colossus and Other Poems, and Ariel as well as The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published just before her death. Plath was considered to be clinically depressed for most of her adult life. She died in 1963 at the age of 30 by suicide.
JSTOR has selected ten of their favorite Sylvia Plath poems and posted them here. A comprehensive history of Plath's life can be found here in The Poetry Foundation.