""Ariel" depicts a woman riding her horse in the countryside, at the very break of dawn. It details the ecstasy and personal transformation that occurs through the experience. The poem begins with complete immobility in the darkness, while the rider waits on the horse. There is then a change -- the intangible blue of hills and distances come into being. The rider is "God's lioness;" she experiences the sensation of becoming one with her horse in a powerful entangling of knees and heels. The plowed field on which she rides soon splits and vanishes behind her, remaining elusive like the brown neck of her steed that she "cannot catch." When Sylvia Plath died, she not only left behind a prolific life but also her unpublished literary masterpiece, Ariel. Her husband, Ted Hughes, brought this collection to life in 1966, and its publication garnered worldwide acclaim. This collection showcases the beloved poet's brilliant, provoking, and always moving poems, including "Ariel" and once again shows why readers have fallen love with her work throughout the generations."--Back cover.