In her first collection of poems, "The Colossus," she wrote of a feeling of nothingness: "white: it is a complexion of the mind.” At the same time, she found solace in nature, from “a blue mist” “dragging the lake,” to white flowers that “tower and topple,” to blue mussels “clumped like bulbs.” After "The Colossus" she  published "The Bell Jar," her only novel, which fictionalizes the time she spent  working for Mademoiselle magazine in New York during college.
En su primera colección de poemas, "El coloso", se refirió a un sentimiento de vacío: "Blanco: es el color de la mente". Al mismo tiempo encontraba consuelo en la naturaleza, como "una niebla azul" que "arrastra el lago", flores blancas que "se yerguen y caen" y mejillones azules "amontonados como bulbos". Luego de "El coloso" publicó "La campana de cristal", su única novela, donde lleva a la ficción su experiencia como empleada de la revista "Mademoiselle" mientras estudiaba en Nueva York.