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"Daddy"

This poem is described about the relationship between Plath and her father. According to her biography, he died when she was 8. And he was a German immigrant and black man. In this poem, we can read her love and hate for him. Especially "I used to pray to recover you." is described about her love. As you know, he died when she was little, so she couldn't remember him fully. Therefore she had interest about him needlessly. In addition, there are some German words that are his language. That shows familiarity for him. And why did she use "German tongue" instead of "German language"? I think this expresses another aspect of her love. It is something sexual. On the other hand, "Daddy, I have had to kill you." is described about hate. I think because he died so early, she hates. In this poem, she used black a lot. Black has bad images and represents hate at this time.

She mentions about not only her father, but also her husband. It was the time she divorce that this poem was published. She expresses her husband for to a vampire. And she wrote that he "drank my blood for a year, /Seven years, if you want to know." A year means the time he was seeing another woman HAVING an affair, and seven years means the time their marriage.

From these points, she implies her love and hate for two men near her.

I felt that Sylvia Plath really awes

her father.For her,her father's image is so big as a giant.As you know,she expresses that

his 'head in the freakish Atlantic.'("Daddy")

I also think that "Daddy" and "Medusa" is

very similar.Both poems SHOW the love and hate,and the fusion and parting for

her father and mother.

'telephone code'

'marble'those words are

common in both poems.

And in Daddy, she often uses the words 'foot root boot brute.'I think it also has a rhyme meaning,too.

I liked the poem "Daddy" because its interesting how she is able to sort of hate her father but marry a man that was almost like him in every way

Everyone who has mentioned the greevus rapping of Ms. Plath was correct, everyone else is stoopid und crazzeee. Butt. noone has noticed that the rapping took place in ass. You fools! Clearly the train (so unnatural) going to into Dachau (so unatural) is the penis entering the anus (so unaturel). When she says, ooh do not put that in my sheiser you German sheiser daddy no, shee is not merely lamenting the tragic fate of the Jews but als o of the Gypsies, and not their asalts. The foot going into the black boot clearly represents the penis sheathed in a benificent black vinyl condom, for as we all know the regualr ones are liable to rupture with grrreat unnaturalism, in the anus

I rerst my case

Cornelius Despt at you service

'Daddy' is Plath's most vivid poem and it truly represents the tormented soul that she was. The other comments that state that the poem is first about her father and then about her husband are true. Her references to her father being a Nazi, or 'panzer man' are maybe literal, but more likely represent him as an evil man. He was evil in her eyes because he died, and in doing so created a daughter that felt forced to seek out a husband just like him in order to fill her void of not having a father. She refers to herself as a Jew because it is the most vivid representation of hatred imagineable-the hatred a Jew would feel towards a Nazi.
I have studied this poem greatly because the words stick in my head. Plath killed herself shortly after she wrote this poem. In fact, she unsuccessfully tried to kill herself before she wrote it, and resented the fact that she did not succeed. She blamed her depression on her father for so long that she even blamed her father for the fact that she was saved from death-"And they stuck me together with glue" After her attempt failed, she decided she was going to do it again, but this time succeed in dying. She was not only going to kill herself because she hated her father for dying, but also because she hated him for forcing her to marry a man like him in order to feel a connection to her dead father. Her husband hurt her just as her father did-"ripped her pretty red heart in two." She refers to her husband, Ted Hughes, as a vampire who sucked her blood for seven years. Now she decides that she's done with life and she is going to die. She is telling her dead father about her plan-"Daddy, Daddy, you bastard, I'm through"
"Daddy" is a truly haunting poem because it basically explains Sylvia Plath's descent into depression and then suicide.

I just recently started reading Sylvia's work for one of my classes, and the insight that this woman has gave me to life I never thought I'd live to learn. This poem speaks to me in so many languages that I have never learned. It is amazing. I am in the same situation and now I think I may know what to do about that. Thank you Sylvia and God bless your soul.

From what I have read on everyone else's postings so far, it seems like mainly everybody feels for Sylvia Plath. However, I find her poem "daddy" downright disturbing. Sure, she might resent her father for dying or for whatever happened thorugh her childhood but there is absolutely no justification of her comparing this father-daughter relationship to that of a Nazi and a Jew. The metaphor she uses is shocking. She cannot begin to understand what the Jews must ahve gone through during the Nazi regime. She cannot compare herself with these minority groups when she was a wealthy American and had a great life, got to go to college etc. It's jsut something you cant do. IT's downright insulting to the Jews and she can't talk about concentration camps as if she knows what it feels to be in one of them. Because she can never realize the full extent of the horrors that went on there. Her life is nothing compared to what happened to the innocent people who were killed, tortured and treated as animals. She has no idea.

I am surprised that noone sees the - to me - very obvious finger Sylvia Plath points at her dead father, accusing him of the crime of incest against his 8-year old daughter.

I went to Amherst College for my undergrad. Study of Plath, who went to the neighboring Smith College, was heavy. I think Plath blamed Pops for dying before she had a chance to get to know him. He was apparently diabetic and ignored doctor's orders to avoid certain foods, and died prematurely as a result when she was eight.

True, she never got over this resentment but then if she had we wouldn't have her dark poetry to read and enjoy today.

I think that everyone here is missing a HUGE part of the interpretation of this poem. Sure, Sylvia may have felt some resentment toward her father and his death, but I don't think that that's what this poem is about. She deeply loved her father.

It's the image of her father, the looming mythological representation of "father figure" that she's lashing out against, the fact that his death has been a deterrence to her development as a human being, not some hollowly angry attack on her father himself. It's all the bad things she sees as that "father figure" entailing, much like her larger-than-life representation of father in "The Colossus".

Insinuations that this poem deals with physical or sexual abuse are misguided. Read the poem again, keeping in mind the idea of not necessarily her father himself, but that image she's been keeping to that figure.