#13 in Poetry
Ariel
- 96
- Pages
- about 2 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“Ariel” gathers fierce, dark poems whose images are hard to shake off. Some readers speak of the power and feeling of the writing; others, new to poetry, struggle with it at first and want to try again. Plath’s second collection was published in 1965, two years after she died, and broke with the manner of her earlier work.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Ariel is Sylvia Plath's second collection of poetry. It was first released in 1965, two years after her death by suicide. The poems of Ariel, with their free-flowing images and characteristically menacing psychic landscapes, marked a dramatic turn from Plath's earlier Colossus poems.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.9 across 141 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 49% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Poetry average of 8.0. That is how 8.0 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.3 | 14 | 10% |
| Hardcover | 7.8 | 127 | 90% |
Frequently asked
How long is Ariel?
It has 96 pages — shorter than 76% of the ranked books in Poetry.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Poetry — with scores between 7.7 and 8.2, closest to this book.
