Sylvia Plath

‘Plath’s poems seethe with anger, hope, desire and disappointment. Her poems reveal a perspective and a language use that are utterly unique’. Sylvia Plath poetry is unique because of her use of language and the perspective and themes she explores, creating powerful images and original metaphorical ideas to evoke a strong climax of feelings which express the struggles she experienced in her own personal life. Her poems ‘Lady Lazarus’ and ‘Daddy’ are confessional poems that use contemporary form and respectively a childlike and mocking tone to convey the persona’s mixed sense of emotions . Plath’s poetry utilises unique language to express her anger, hope, desire and disappointment. There is a constant suicidal motif in her poems revealing her personal issues and problems which are linked to male domination in the patriarchal society she resided in. It is unusual that Plath’s poetry is written in a strong female perspective contrary to the passive domesticity which women were meant to abide by in her 1950’s and 1960’s context.

In Plath’s confessional poem ‘Daddy’, she uses language that creates powerful imagery to express a great purging of emotions she experienced in her personal life. The poet primarily contemplates her anger with her father and the paradoxical feelings she holds towards their relationship. The poem begins with a childish, rebellious tone by using the repetition of assonance in “you do not do” and this links to the title “Daddy” which incites within the reader a childish perspective. Throughout the poem, this perspective changes from the ‘godliness’ of the father figure who was the centre of her childhood into contempt and fear, and the change in relationship is shown by referring her father as a Nazi and herself as a victim, a Jew. From the use of these cruel imagery, we get a sense of her own battle between the adult self and the internal child, and it is almost like an irrational anger is vented, but ultimately, mixed with the grief and