Form and Content in “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath.
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Once you are soaked into a piece of poetry and find yourself immersed in the author’s world, you truly know that the artwork is magnificent. When I read “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath, I found myself rereading the piece and getting swallowed into her life through the poem. Sylvia has spoken her mind in this piece and invited the reader into her world with so much vulnerability. The poem needs a reader to take a minute and take in what she intends to deliver. Art is used as a way of expression, and truly through this poem, Plath was able to express herself. The relationship between Sylvia and her father has been broadly highlighted, and her struggles in this relationship are out in the air. The relationship also between her husband and her have been highlighted. “Daddy” is a classic example of how an artist can describe their environment, feelings, and even the political situation through art (Plath, 1981).
Sylvia’s died when she was at a tender age. This resulted in discord in their relationship that resulted in her carrying the burden all her life to appoint she even contemplated murder. The poem was also released after her husband left her, making everything about the poem fall in place. During her era, Sylvia was considered among the best poets, which resonated in her work, and Daddy was no exception. The style of writing contains not only repletion but also rhyme. There is the use of form, content, metaphors, imagery, and symbolism, amongst others. Rhyme is particularly dominant in this piece as it is experienced in all the stanzas. It is dominant that the poem can actually sing out as a song. Many people interpret the content differently, with different groups giving meaning to the poem according to their beliefs and opinions (“Norton Ebooks”, 2021).
Sylvia’s pain and had been going through throughout her life has been well articulated in the poem. The poem’s content is about a baby girl speaking out about the hate and strong resentment she has for her father, who died a long time ago. It also speaks of her love for her father through the hate she has. It can be considered as a love-hate relationship. The content also resonates with the struggle put in in endeavors of forgetting and letting go of a father that was never there, to begin with. Efforts of loving and even accepting the father and in the process getting married to a mirror image of the father. The pain of loving some and yet hating the person with equal magnitude. The content is basically the voice of a young girl speaking up about her struggles all through (Oliveira, 2017).
Sylvia resonates with the young girl, which is seen through the nursey-rhyme-like qualities that bring out the childish nature of the persona in parts of the poem. The poem’s form helps in categorizing the different feelings of the author and bringing them out in a manner of musicality and heightened language. Lines that could have been thought of as harsh are brought a tone down through the poem’s form. There is an element of boldness and also calm. An element of love and also engraved hate. These highs and lows are brought about by form. The form in the poem also brings out irony. Plath speaks about suicide and her hate towards her father by comparing it to a relationship between a Nazi and a Jew, and yet it is tone down by the repetition and form (Plath, 1981). Sylvia exposed her vulnerability through the poem and spoke about a side of father-daughter relationships that most people shy of. This piece is a true form of expression of an artist through their art (Takolander, 2017).
References.
Norton Ebooks. (2021). Retrieved 18 March 2021, from https://digital.wwnorton.com/48211/r/goto/cfi/1162!/4
Oliveira, H. G. (2017, September). A survey on intelligent poetry generation: Languages, features, techniques, reutilisation, and evaluation. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Natural Language Generation (pp. 11-20).
Plath, Sylvia. Collected Poems. Ed. Ted Hughes. New York: Harper & Row, 1981.
Takolander, M. (2017). Confessional poetry and the materialisation of an autobiographical self. Life Writing, 14(3), 371-383.