This study focuses on analyzing and discussing the interpretation of the vocal chamber music Ariel by the 20th century American composer Ned Rorem. (1923-) In 1971, Rorem was commissioned to compose a vocal chamber music for soprano, clarinet and piano by one of his good friend, an American well-known soprano, Phyllis Curtin(1921) . He picked up five pieces of works from the anthology, Ariel, of Sylvia Plath(1932-1963), the American female poet, for this composition. With a tie-in of Plath¡¦s poems and the poetry¡¦s life experience, Rorem used various musical language to reveal the sorrow and frustration in the mind of a woman whose husband has affair, and also the ideology of death in these poems . This essay consists of five parts: 1. Composer Ned Rorem¡¦s life, 2. Rorem and his art songs, 3. Poet Sylvia Plath's life, 4. The composed background of the vocal chamber music, Ariel, 5. Analysis and interpretations of the five lyrics and songs of Ariel. Through my study of Ned Rorem¡¦s Ariel, I hope to assist the readers having a better understanding to this work, as well as providing useful ideas for the interpreta-tion.