Plath was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. She was born in Boston but studied at Cambridge University where she then acclaimed status as a poet and writer. In 1956 she married Ted Hughes and they had two children together. They spent there time between the United States and England. In 1963, after suffering depression for many years, Plath committed suicide aged 30. A lot of the poetry that she wrote comes under the genre of 'confessional poetry' which is described as poetry 'of the personal' due to a focus on extreme events that individuals faced. Such examples are of their sexuality, abuse, mental illnesses and suicide.