Available online at http://jgu.garmian.edu.krd Journal of University of Garmian https://doi.org/10.24271/garmian.207116 The Portrayal of Death in Sylvia Plath's Selected Poems Shokhan Mohammed Fatah English Department, College of Education and Languages, Charmo University Abstract One of the most outstanding poets, novelists and short story writers in American literature is Sylvia Plath (1932-1963). A confessional poet whose texts are genuine in style and subject matter. Death is a dominant theme in the poetry of Sylvia Plath. She had dealt with this topic from various perspectives. Her father's death left her dejected. Besides, her husband's betrayal made her more forlorn and desperate. All of these events in her life caused her mental state disorder and this is clear in the poems I chose to analyze, “Daddy”, “Lady Lazarus”, and “Edge”. This paper examines Plath's depiction of death in her poetry and the illustration of death related to her biography. It also aims at presenting the existence of death in her life and the absence of the fear of death in her poetry as well; which is her observation of death. Moreover, it will examine how Sylvia Plath‟s mental state did affect her works and how it is important for the reader to know the background of Sylvia Plath to understand her works. Hence, the paper will start with introducing her style of writing. Then, the paper analyzes the selected poems accordingly. For this purpose, the paper will give a deep dive into the selected poems of the poet‟s posthumously poem collection book “Ariel”, and conclude the overall picture of each poem for better understanding the reasons behind the poet‟s behaviors. Finally, the paper concludes the findings of the study. Article Info Received: January , 2020 Revised:February,2020 Accepted: March ,2020 s Keywords Confessional poetry, death, hopelessness, suicide, infidelity. Corresponding Author ahokhan.mohammed@charmouniversity.org 1 Introduction Death has always been a recurring theme in most of the texts in world literature. Some writers have been obsessed with this traditional theme. Literature mirrors life, thus writers, poets in particular, have regularly attempted to reflect the miseries of their lives which have caused them to long for death. Scholars are primarily concerned with the concept of death with those writers who have committed suicide. Mainly because not only they have described death, but also have experienced it. There are poets who describe death as something tranquil and natural, such as Emily Dickenson. On the other hand, there are also poets who write about the horrors of war and death, Wilfred Owen and other war poets would be great examples of this kind. Nevertheless, Sylvia Plath's concept of death is different from them and other poets dealing with the theme of death, she does not follow the style of others in the descriptions, and she has created her own style. Sylvia Plath is among those who played a vital role to present her understanding of death distinctively. Due to her dull life, death has been her companion throughout her life. She