This is the period in time that Sylvia was working under a Fulbright Scolarship on her novel, "The Bell Jar". A time when Sylvia had an appendectomey, two births, a miscarriage and a marriage which was disintigrating.
Sylvia needed to be destructive during this period to create Ariel. It's as if Sylivia wanted to cast aside all that she had learned and start anew to try and find her true poetic voice. What Sylvia found was that as a consequence of her destructive actions toward others and later herself, nearly all her friends abandoned hope for her and eventually, abandoned her altogether.
The name Ariel comes from a horse that Sylvia took pleasure in riding. The horse is symbolic of the type of every day themes Plath was using to create her poems using practically anything for inspiration during this time creating sometimes 3 landmark poems a day.
Here is a listing of the order which Sylvia wanted Ariel to flow
1. Morning Song
2. The Couriers
3. The Rabbit Catcher
4. Thalidomide
5. The Applicant
6. Barren Woman
7. Lady Lazarus
8. Tulips
9. A Secret
10. The Jailer
11. Cut
12. Elm
13. The Night Dances
14. The Detective
15. Ariel
16. Death & Co.
17. Magi
18. Lesbos
19. The Othe
20. Stopped Dead
21. Poppies in October
22. The Courage of Shutting Up
23. Nick and the Candle Stick
24. Berck-Plage
25. Gulliver
26. Getting There
27. Medusa
28. Purdah
29. The Moon and the Yew Tree
30. A Birthday Present
31. Letter in November
32. Amnesiac
33. The Rival
34. Daddy
35. You're
36. Fever 103
37. The Bee Meeting
38. The Arrival of the Bee Box
39. Stings
40. The Swarms
41. Wintering