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ALT The New Yorker would reject every poem Plath sent to it in October, Novem-ber, and December 1962 except for "Amnesiac." Rejection letters from Howard Moss seven in all--arrived with depressing regularity that fall and winter, as he passed on some of the greatest poems of the twentieth century: "Ariel,» "Purdah,» "Daddy,» "Lady Lazarus," "Fever 103°» "Poppies in Octo-ber," and "Sheep in Fog," among others. The New Yorker still thought of itself as a family magazine, and these poems were too shocking for a publication that sat on living room coffee tables. Once the rejections arrived, Plath's optimism and creative momentum became harder to sustain. She had told her mother the poems she was writing that autumn would make her name. Now she wondered if ther would be published at all.