Tulips

"Tulips" is a poem by American poet Sylvia Plath. The poem was written in 1961 and included in the collection Ariel published in 1965. The poem is written in nine stanzas in sixty-three lines. Style and structure "Tulips" is written in nine seven-line stanzas, totaling 63 lines, and follows no rhyme scheme. Richard Grey comments on the verse that it is "nominally free but has a subtle iambic base; the lines... ...move quietly and mellifluously; and a sense of hidden melody ('learning' / 'lying', 'lying by myself quietly', 'light lies', 'white walls') transforms casual remarks into memorable speech." Context Ted Hughes has stated "Tulips" was written about some flowers Plath received while in a hospital recovering from an appendectomy. Unlike many of her other Ariel poems, "Tulips" was written long before her eventual suicide in 1963.