Sylvia Plath was a ’60s confessional poet who, in her brief lifespan, managed to make a big mark on the world. With all the words that encompass the dictionary, I find it difficult to describe her with ease. She was different. She wrote like her words were promised to be kept in her head. Ultimately, Sylvia Plath is one of the most recognized and iconic poets in American literature, and she has gone on to elicit passion within writers long after her death.

Despite the fact that literary societies tend to envision Plath as the epitome of modernist poetry—and really poetry in general—the notion that someone is behind the artist is often disregarded. The literary community with which Plath was involved opened up a variety of opportunities by placing her with many prominent writers who would help shape and inspire Plath’s writing.

As I look back at the life of Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and Ted Hughes stick out to me. But how exactly did Sexton and Hughes influence Plath?

Anne Sexton was a fellow confessional poet and Boston native. The pair met at a literary seminar in 1958 and quickly connected. In fact, the two had many interesting discussions with each other as they mused about a variety of topics over martinis after class. In 1960, Plath published The Colossus and Other Poems, which was her first poetry collection. The poems focused heavily on themes such as death and motherhood, which were often main points of conversation between Plath and Sexton. The two were very dark in nature and it only further developed as their bond strengthened.

In a 1962 interview that Plath participated in with Peter Orr, she discussed her thoughts about Anne Sexton:

“I think particularly the poetess Anne Sexton, who writes also about her experiences as a mother, as a mother who has had a nervous breakdown, is an extremely emotional and feeling young woman, and her poems are wonderfully craftsman-like poems, and yet, they have a kind of emotional and psychological depth, which I think is something perhaps quite new, quite exciting.”

Plath’s acknowledgment of their shared experiences, as well as her strong opinion of Sexton, shows the admiration she had for her. And, although not explicitly stated, it shows the important role that Sexton played in Plath’s life and the influence it had on her development as a writer and poet.

Anne Sexton was what I’d like to call Sylvia Plath 2.0, simply for the fact that her honesty was unmatched. Sexton was broken and blunt, and for many people, it was a shock. There wasn’t a place she wouldn’t take her writing. Based on Plath’s answer regarding Anne Sexton, I believe that her willingness to share, especially when it came to more maternal pieces, drew her in and helped inspire her own poems. Some of Plath’s poems, including “Lady Lazarus,” “Morning Song,” “Lesbos,” and even “Daddy,” seem to further show Sexton’s inspiration and influential impact on the poet.

Throughout “Lady Lazarus,” for instance, Plath was frank about the topic of anguish and death, especially when you read her ending: “Out of the ash/I rise with my red hair/And I eat men like air.” Plath utilizes the idea that less is more while making her words impactful and a bit shocking. The style shares similarities with Sexton, and it’s apparent that the two helped influence each other’s writing.

Not too long before Plath attended workshops in which she’d met Anne Sexton, she had met Ted Hughes, her soon to be husband and yet another source that inspired and influenced her. Plath pursued a fellowship at the University of Cambridge on a grant after graduating from Smith College. It was there that she would meet Hughes, by whom she was already fascinated, at a party in 1956. He too was a poet and novelist.

In an interview with Hughes, Plath said “I went to this little celebration and that’s actually where we met… Then we saw a great deal of each other. Ted came back to Cambridge and suddenly we found ourselves getting married a few months later… We kept writing poems to each other. Then it just grew out of that, I guess, a feeling that we both were writing so much and having such a fine time doing it we decided that this should keep on.”

Plath was stimulated and inspired to write due to her relationship with Hughes. The two shared an equal love for writing which only blossomed as their relationship continued. Their new found love for each other had given way for a new, more passionate creative outlet. Hughes also impacted Plath stylistically.

His own poems were like puzzles, and they were often difficult to understand and open to interpretation. Plath seems to have been influenced by this style in the way that she manipulates the syntax in her poems to make them a more interesting read. An example of this is displayed in Plath’s poem “Stings” for which almost every line explores a different metaphor that helps tie the poem together, seamlessly. 

But, apart from their shared love of writing, their tumultuous relationship influenced her writing as well. The couple shared two kids, Frieda and Nicholas, together. They split in late 1962, when it was revealed that he had a mistress who was allegedly carrying his child. It was long rumored that they had a rocky relationship, and letters left behind by Plath hint that there was possibly abuse.

In the time between Plath’s breakup and her death, most of her poetry from her collection Ariel was written. Ariel, her last work, was released posthumously in 1965. In that time, it was noted that Plath had difficulty coming to terms with the ended partnership. “Contusion” from Ariel explores a hopeless attitude toward life and dealt with desperation and depression. It was written in the weeks before she took her own life, a suicide fueled by her many hardships, including her separation from Hughes. 

In “Contusion,” Plath writes, “Color floods to the spot, dull purple./The rest of the body is all washed-out,/The color of pearl.” These lines seem to refer to things that left her lifeless, such as Hughes, her father’s death, and rejection. The anguish Hughes caused her ignited a flame within her. And so she wrote and she wrote.

That sadness lingering in her was present in her work, and it ended up pushing her. In her poem “Ariel,” Plath expresses her pain in life and the loss of control, and even hope, with lines like “The dew that flies/Suicidal, at one with the drive/Into the red.”

In poems such as “Contusion” and “Ariel,” Sylvia Plath takes her readers on a journey as she feels pieces of her fall and crumble away—it’s apparent that Ted Hughes served as a motivating factor as she poured her soul onto the pages.

And with each work, Plath’s openness only increased as she came more and more into herself as a writer. Plath’s relationship with Sexton was already well developed as well as the one with her husband, Ted Hughes, despite their tumultuous rows. With time, Plath grew as a writer and through experiences with those close to her, her style evolved into something new.

Nonetheless, Plath’s imprint on American literature is everlasting, in part thanks to her influences. Looking at the people that influenced her life, like Sexton and Hughes, it gives meaning to her eccentricity and the poems she crafted. 

As Anne Sexton explained when discussing the issue of Sylvia Plath and influence: “Let’s get down to facts. I’m sure Sylvia’s influences are hidden, as with most of us… Believe me, no one ever tells one’s influences –and certainly not on the radio or the TV or in interviews, if he can help it…I’d never tell anyone and she was smarter than I am about such hidden things. Poets will not only hide influences. They will bury them!”

We are not who we were yesterday and the people we are in the present is limited. We are shifting parts, we are moving targets, and the relationships we hold influence our lives by shaping distinct versions of ourselves. At least, that was the case for Sylvia Plath.