Tori Amos was interviewed by Mr. Gee recently on the BBC4's "Rymye and Reason". About mid-way through the segment Amos mentions she turned to the poetry of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton in her development as a song writer. This can be found around 15 minutes, 30 seconds into the program. At about 16 minutes, 45 seconds, Amos reads most of "Lady Lazarus". Thanks to Melanie in Australia for the link. The recording is available on BBC's iPlayer until 18 January 2011.
Sylvia Plath inspires us all in various and wonderful ways. She is in many respects a form of comfort to us, which is something that Esther Greenwood expresses in The Bell Jar , about a bath: "There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them. Whenever I'm sad I'm going to die, or so nervous I can't sleep, or in love with somebody I won't be seeing for a week, I slump down just so far and then I say: 'I'll go take a hot bath.'" We read and remember Sylvia Plath for many reasons, many of them deeply personal and private. But we commemorate her, too, in very public ways, as Anna of the long-standing Tumblr Loving Sylvia Plath , has been tracking, in the form of tattoos. (Anna's on Instagram with it too, as SylviaPlathInk .) The above bath quote is among Sylvia Plath's most famous. It often appears here and there and it is stripped of its context. But I think most people will know it is from her nove