Friday, October 22, 2010

Celebrating "Daddy"

I've been revisiting Sylvia Plath's poems this week and reflecting on her dark genius.  She is by far one of my favorite poets, because her work never fails to get under my skin and inside my heart.

In Sylvia Plath's poetry, as well as her fiction, suicide is a recurring theme.  And each mention of suicide makes her work all the more haunting for readers today, forty-seven years after she took her own life.  One such poem is "Daddy."

I first discovered "Daddy" a couple years ago when I was researching allegory in poetry.  I was hypnotized by Sylvia's words, by the tone of the piece and the way it affected my emotions.  Then, I found the video on YouTube of Sylvia herself reading the poem.  It became an instant favorite of mine.

I'm going to share that video here, and just below it are the words to "Daddy."  You can scroll and follow along -- I think that makes the experience that much better.  I hope you enjoy it.




Daddy
by Sylvia Plath



You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.

Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time--
Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one gray toe
Big as a Frisco seal

And a head in the freakish Atlantic
Where it pours bean green over blue
In the waters off beautiful Nauset.
I used to pray to recover you.
Ach, du.

In the German tongue, in the Polish town
Scraped flat by the roller
Of wars, wars, wars.
But the name of the town is common.
My Polack friend

Says there are a dozen or two.
So I never could tell where you
Put your foot, your root,
I never could talk to you.
The tongue stuck in my jaw.

It stuck in a barb wire snare.
Ich, ich, ich, ich,
I could hardly speak.
I thought every German was you.
And the language obscene

An engine, an engine
Chuffing me off like a Jew.
A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen.
I began to talk like a Jew.
I think I may well be a Jew.

The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna
Are not very pure or true.
With my gipsy ancestress and my weird luck
And my Taroc pack and my Taroc pack
I may be a bit of a Jew.

I have always been scared of you,
With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.
And your neat mustache
And your Aryan eye, bright blue.
Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You--

Not God but a swastika
So black no sky could squeak through.
Every woman adores a Fascist,
The boot in the face, the brute
Brute heart of a brute like you.

You stand at the blackboard, daddy,
In the picture I have of you,
A cleft in your chin instead of your foot
But no less a devil for that, no not
Any less the black man who

Bit my pretty red heart in two.
I was ten when they buried you.
At twenty I tried to die
And get back, back, back to you.
I thought even the bones would do.

But they pulled me out of the sack,
And they stuck me together with glue.
And then I knew what to do.
I made a model of you,
A man in black with a Meinkampf look

And a love of the rack and the screw.
And I said I do, I do.
So daddy, I'm finally through.
The black telephone's off at the root,
The voices just can't worm through.

If I've killed one man, I've killed two--
The vampire who said he was you
And drank my blood for a year,
Seven years, if you want to know.
Daddy, you can lie back now.

There's a stake in your fat black heart
And the villagers never liked you.
They are dancing and stamping on you.
They always knew it was you.
Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through.


~12 October 1962~




What's your favorite poem or poet?










19 comments:

Summer Frey said...

It's hard for me to choose just one. I love Billy Collins, of course, Ted Kooser, Mary Oliver, Adrienne Rich, Li-Young Lee, James Dickey, Ted Hughes, Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, William Carlos Williams--I could go on and on. For me, poetry was something I didn't really "get" until college, but once I got it I really loved it.

Karen Jones Gowen said...

T.S. Eliot is my favorite poet. I have no favorite poem. But this video was chillingly beautiful. Now I'm curious about her father, her history (all I know is what I read in The Bell Jar), I would love to read her biography. Thanks for sharing this.

Unknown said...

Sylvia Plath caught my attention in high school when I read the Bell Jar. I love this reading.

Elizabeth Poole said...

I love Sylvia Plath! My favorite line of hers is "What fresh hell is this?"

I also love Pablo Neruda's I Do Not Love You
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/pablo_neruda/poems/15706

That gets me every time.

E.e. cummings is also awesome, and W.H. Auden, and Sara Teasdale, and Yeats...the list goes on.

Great post!

Roxy said...

Wow, Nicole. I have read some Plath, but I've never heard that one. Her voice really added an extra poignancy. My favorite poets are Tennyson and Longfellow. Plus Swinburne and Yeats. Great, thoughtful post!

Paul C said...

Every stanza of Plath's poem pulls you in to decode its jarring imagery. One of my favourite poets is Pablo Neruda.

Carolyn V. said...

Oh wow. The poem is very interesting. It's hard for me to pick a line I liked the most, but I couldn't help wonder what her life must have been like.

Eric W. Trant said...

Wow, didn't know you had such a dark side, Nicole.

I can't say as I have a favorite poet, but I'm a fan of fellow blogger-poet Annie over at Wine and Words, or Quiet Commotion, take your pick, she changes names like people change socks.


- Eric

Travener said...

Yeats, "The Rose of the World." The only poem I've ever memorized.

LTM said...

Jessica!

Oh, wait. :D no, I love poetry--an old English major here. Langston Hughes has such great rhythm, but even Marlowe and Wallace Stevens--the Emperor of Ice Cream? No, wait! omg TS Elliot. Yes. Lovesong...

whoa. did I just geek out on you? ;p

Jai Joshi said...

Wow! Nicole, that video is amazing. There's nothing like hearing a poet read their own poetry so we can hear the words just as they meant them to be heard, with the right rhythm and cadence and emphasis.

'Daddy' is so powerful. I never realised until this moment how powerful.

Jai

Lola Sharp said...

I love Plath and her darkness.
(and I've never been suicidal in my life, but I still love her darkness)

I could be wrong, but I am fairly certain that the quote "what fresh hell is this" is not by Plath, but rather by Dorothy parker. (though Shakespeare has his place with it, too) But, we use that quote here all the time in our house.

I am a major lover of poetry, especially the Romatic Poets: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Shelley, and my 2 favorites: Keats and Lord Byron

I also love e.e. cummings, Neruda, Poe, Yeats...

I think some study of poetry is good for fiction writing. :)

Have a terrific weekend, Nic.
Love,
me

Elizabeth Mueller said...

Wow, my heart is heavy for poor Sylvia. What agony she must have lived through. It makes me want to read about her childhood. I can't stand it when kids suffer from adults' lumbering acts of selfish cruelties.

I know she's happier where she's now.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.

~Elizabeth :)

Elizabeth Mueller said...

Nicole! I just spent the last hour studying Sylvia Plath. She died, leaving 2 VERY young children behind. My heart is so sad for people who suffer greatly.

I do pray every day for those who do in hopes that they find love in some way or that I may be led to them so that I could help lift them up.

Thank you for posting this....

Jessica Bell said...

I have many faves, but one I came across recently which blew me away was by a man named Dionisio D. Martinez.

The room itself. The women. The absence of women
in the room. What the ansence of women does
to a room. The sound of all those women getting

up and leaving; all of them at once, like wild
birds of hunger. How the world can be conquered
if only ... Just don't tell the women.

What the absence of women will do to men
eventually. Fears. Men talk about fears, bad
dreams, women leaving, the room swelling with

the absence of women. Bad dreams have a way
of walking in the room when women leave.
Each dream is an afterimage of a woman leaving.

Unknown said...

I've never read anything of Sylvia Plath's! I'm a bit behind the times (obviously) definitely plan on searching for others!

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

Sylvia Plath is an amazing poet. I don't have any favourites though.

Jessica Ann Hill said...

Plath is one of my favorite poets, too. I also love Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Edgar Allan Poe.

A couple of my favorite poems are A Dream Within A Dream and Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening.

Susan Fields said...

I've never been drawn to poetry, and I'm not sure I even have a favorite poet, though I do like Shel Silverstein.

This is a fascinating poem - definitely makes me curious to know more about her father.