Mad Girl's Love Song, by Sylvia Plath

Melissa Alcantaro

English 1102

Instructor: Dr. Tammy Powley

Photo courtesy of Biographies, Thomson Gale.

This poem is a confessional poem which gave insight into the way Plath was feeling inside. So much emotion, anger, and disappointment in life ravaged her mind.

Biographical background of Sylvia Plath:

Sylvia Plath was born in Massachusets on October 27, 1932 to parents of German descent. Plath's father, a college professor, died in 1940, almost two weeks after Plath's eigth birthday. On his gravestone was one of Plath's first poems called "Daddy," which concerns "her troubled relationship with her authoritarian father and her feelings of betrayal when he died." (Gale, 2006). This is a prelude to many of her well known poems.

During Sylvia's college years, she suffered from depression. It was at this time that she made her first attempt at suicide by taking an overdose of pills. She later used her experience with attempted suicide as material in her writing of The Bell Jar. After her attempted suicide, she was committed for a short time in a mental institution. Once Plath was released from her stay at the mental institute, she seemed to prosper in her education in college and soon graduated with honors in 1955. She met her husband in college, a poet, Ted Hughs.

Plath married Hughs and moved to the United Kingdom when she was 28 years old. After her first child, she miscarried another which was also used as a forum for her writings. Within two years of having another child, Plath's husband left her for another woman. This likely contributed to her mental demise.

On February 11, 1965, Sylvia Plath successfuly committed suicide by turning on the gas in her kitchen. "The last gesture she made was to leave her children two mugs of milk and a plate of buttered bread." (Gale, 1998).

Source: Biography Resource Center. Thomson Gale.

Analysis:

Upon researching the biographical information of Plath, the speaker in this poem points to Plath herself. She was a person suffering pain, anguish and severe depression for what seems almost the whole entirety of her life. The audience for the speaker would have been her estranged husband who shattered her world by leaving her for the love of another woman. Plath writes "The stars go waltzings out in blue and red, and arbitrary blackness gallops in" and "I should have loved a thunderbird instead; At least when spring comes they roar again." (Perirne's 986) Thunderbirds are regarded as mythological birds of ancient Native Americans. They fly south in the winter but always return in the spring for new beginnings. Plath's husband did not fulfill his promise to reconcile with her as indicated where she writes "I fancied you'd return the way you said, but I grow old and I forget your name." (Perrine's 987) Ultimately the mood of this poem is a somber one of someone mourning the loss of a husband, who did not die, but might as well have in Plath's view. She was angry, but most hurt by the loss of love and trust she had in Hughs.

This poem fully evidences the pain and anguish Plath was suffering. It speaks loudly to the unfulfilled promises that her husband made in her life and the absolute dispair this made her feel. It is a sad but insightful view into the writers mind.

Source: Perrine's, 9th Ed.

Flying Geese

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;

I lift my lids and all is born again.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,

And arbitrary blackness gallops in:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed

And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.

(I think I made you up in my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:

Exit seraphim and Satan's men:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,

But I grow old and I forget your name.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;

At least when spring comes they roar back again.

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)

Source: Perrine's, 9th Ed.

Syliva Platt, born 10/27/1932, died 2/11/1963

Photo courtesy of: Weikipedica.org