The poems in Sylvia Plath&s Ariel including many of her best-known such as & Lady Lazarus& & Daddy& & Edge& & & Paralytic& were all written between the publication in 1960 of Plath&s first book The Colossus & her death in 1963 & If the poems are despairing vengeful & destructive they are at the same time tender open to things & also unusually clever sardonic hardminded They are works of great artistic purity & despite all the nihilism great generosity the book is a major literary event& A Alvarez in the Observer