Sylvia Plath`s "Poem for a Birthday"(1959), a sequence of seven dramatic monologues, has not attracted enough attention from readers and scholars because of its "absence of a tightly reasoned and rhythmed logic" (Plath`s words). Indeed, its surrealistic atmosphere, seemingly extravagant stream of consciousness, and abrupt transition of images give itself an unfavorable impression of confusion and obscurity. The aim of this paper is to examine the poem as a whole by bringing into focus the theme of the persona`s self-exploration toward a rebirth and, as a result, to demonstrate the richness and meaningfulness veiled by its deceptively confused appearance. The poem embodies in diverse modes the persona`s unceasing efforts to explore her identity in order to attain the desired rebirth. Whereas "Who" portrays the persona as a tiny inhabitant of a tool shed that explores the possibility of her rebirth, "Dark House" represents her as an underground mole-like creature groping for the roots of her identity. Unlike these, "Maenad" and "The Beast," centering on the persona`s complicated feelings in her childhood toward her parents, address the problem of her identity. "Flute Notes from a Reedy Pond," having an underwater creature as its persona, affirms the possibility of rebirth, while "Witch Burning" dramatizes the persona`s efforts to attain a spiritual rebirth through the ordeal of fire. "The Stones," the last of the sequence, based on Plath`s own experiences of a suicide attempt and the following electro-shock therapy, tackles the problem of the physical reconstruction of the persona`s shattered self. Having begun as "an exercise" and turned into "a fine, new thing" which "frees" Plath herself, "Poem for a Birthday" is placed at the end of the Birtish edition of The Colossus(1960). Most poem in this first collection of her poetry objectively depict the poet`s self in an oppressive and hostile environment. "Poem for a Birthday," with its dramatic voices and allusive images which are later to be developed in Plath`s later poetry, by successfully enacting a drama of the persona`s self-exploration toward a rebirth, paves the very way for Ariel. Therefore, the poem might justly represent at once the transitional period of Plath`s poetic career and the oeuvre itself.