Sylvia Plath's second volume of poetry, Ariel, published posthumously in 1965, shocked and provoked reviewers with its unexpected intensity and power, and the publication of her Collected Poems in 1981 confirmed her as a poet of stature and maturity. Beginning with reviews of her initial collection, The Colossus, the reader is clearly guided through the profusion of critical material that has variously described Plath as feminine and feminist, personal...