This poem by the name of “Daddy” was written by Sylvia Plath, a troubled young woman who suffered the loss of her father when she was eight, attempted suicide later in life, and underwent shock therapy. This poem gives insight into the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of the woman who wrote it. It is written in an interesting style that has a hard rhyme scheme to identify. It is written as a letter from Sylvia to her father and expresses deep emotions that Sylvia feels towards him. These two points about the poem will be analyzed and addressed in depth in this paper.
The poem “Daddy” rhymes sporadically. A few stanzas of the poem appear to be written in Iambic Tetrameter. Take this stanza for example:
” Bit my pretty red heart in two. (A)
I was ten when they buried you. (A)
At twenty I tried to die (B)
And get back, back, back to you. (A)
I thought even the bones would do.” (A) (Plath, “Daddy”)
On the contrary, this stanza of the poem doesn’t appear to have any rhyme scheme at all:
“It stuck in a barb wire snare. (A)
Ich, ich, ich, ich, (B)
I could hardly speak. (C)
I thought every German was you. (D)
And the language obscene” (E) (Plath, “Daddy”)
It appears that Sylvia wrote as the words came to her mind, rhyming when it suited her but otherwise not. Since the poem does not have a consistent rhyme scheme, it would be classified as a poem written in free verse. Therefore, the poem has no rhyme scheme.
The poem is addressed to Sylvia’s father. Sylvia suffered greatly from her father’s death and has mixed feelings about him which she expresses throughout the poem. In the beginning of the poem Sylvia seems to mourn her father’s death. She writes “Daddy, I have had to kill you. You died before I had time—-” (Plath, “Daddy”) While she supposedly blames herself for her father’s death (literal death or not) she seems remorseful and later writes that “I used to pray to recover you.” (Plath, “Daddy”) In these verses it appears that Sylvia believes that her father’s death was necessary but she still wishes he didn’t die. However, later in the poem and towards the end Sylvia seems to fear and hate her father. She compares him to a German and herself to a Jew, expressing a relationship in which Sylvia feared and felt threatened by her father. She also calls him a brute and compares him to a devil. Her poem then takes another turn as Sylvia accounts her attempted suicide, writing that she was trying to die to get back to her father, which would imply a great love and longing for her father contrary to the hatred that she previously expressed. Her poem then quickly escalates to words of hatred again, comparing her father to a vampire that sucked her blood for seven years. She writes that he has a stake in his heart, referencing one of the only ways to kill a vampire, and that the villagers never liked him and are stamping on him.
Sylvia ends the poem with what could be considered a break up line: “Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through.” It sounds as if the poem is an account of Sylvia’s struggle to deal with her father’s death. She never got over her father dying and she is trying to figure out where their relationship stands. The ending line of the poem is a final resolution that she does not want anything to do with her father. It is clear that Sylvia is a very troubled woman. Nevertheless, her troubled mind produced a very intriguing poem that provides scholars and students with a great work to analyze and debate.
Sources cited:
Plath, Sylvia. Daddy. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48999/daddy-56d22aafa45b2
McClelland, Lynn. Module 3 – Diving into Poetry. https://learn.maricopa.edu/courses/1071095/modules
ENH Short Stories 