[William A. Baurle]

I know that this is a formalist's board primarily but I feel compelled to nominate Plath's Ariel, not only because of its enormous influence and popularity, but because the poems are, actually, very very good, for the most part. Its a collection the author put together rather fastidiously, and this comes across in the unifying whole where the poems have a certain similarity in form and content. Of course we know she was married to Ted Hughes, arguably one of the best poets of the last century. Hughes edited her Collected Works (or was it complete, can't remember), which I would have nominated instead of Ariel if I didn't think selecting single books was a better way to go. Hughes did take liberties with the Ariel collection and made various changes after her death. The book came out in 1965. Plath died in 1963.

Those who love metrical poetry may know that Plath started out writing tightly wrought poems in traditional forms, mainly sonnets and villanelles, a number of which are in the juvenilia section of her Collected Works but which do not bear the mark of an amateur in any way. She is to my mind one of the greatest poets of the last century.