Daddy

“Daddy” is a poem by American poet/novelist Sylvia Plath, published posthumously in the 1965 poetry collection Ariel. It is one of her most well-known, well-analyzed poems and has found its way into a variety of American anthologies and classroom discussions. “Daddy” was written during the final months of Plath’s life, in which she wrote poems at a rapid rate of about two to three per day. This poem depicts autobiographical aspects of her relationship with her father, Professor Otto Plath, who died when she was only 8-years-old, with brief mentions of her marriage to British poet Ted Hughes. Much like her other work, this poem tackles mental health, suicide, and the tug-of-war between life and death. Part break-up letter to her father, part confessional journal entry to herself, this darkly complex poem includes allusions to Nazis and Jews, vampires, and the devil.

Poet Biography

Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts, to parents Otto and Aurelia who both taught at Boston University—Aurelia taught shorthand and Otto taught biology. Plath’s younger brother Warren was born in 1935. At age 8, Plath faced two significant events: she published her first poem in the children’s section of the Boston Herald, and her father died. Famous for her entries, Plath started to keep a journal at age 11. Alongside writing, Plath showed an affinity for visual art, winning a Scholastic Art and Writing Award for her painting at age 15.

Plath was a high achiever with an IQ of 160. She showed her academic prowess at Smith College where she edited The Smith Review. Additionally, she guest edited at Mademoiselle magazine in New York City in the summer of her junior year of college. This summer experience, including her attempted suicide and six months of psychiatric help, inspired the writing of her novel The Bell Jar.

After graduating summa cum laude, she received a Fulbright Scholarship to attend Newnham College, a women’s college associated with the University of Cambridge. In England in 1956, Plath met poet Ted Hughes. They married the same year and moved to the United States. Plath juggled writing while teaching at Smith College before becoming a receptionist for the psychiatric ward at a Massachusetts hospital. In 1960, Plath gave birth to her daughter Frieda—and her first poetry collection The Colossus. She had her son Nicholas in 1962. Later that year she and Ted separated, and Plath penned most of the poems that would later be published in Ariel. Plath suffered from bouts of depression for much of her life, and in 1963 she was found dead with her head in the oven while her children slept in another room. Ariel and The Journals of Sylvia Plath, among other works, were published posthumously.

Poem Text

Plath, Sylvia. “Daddy.” 1962. Academy of American Poets.

Summary

The speaker “I” directly addresses a 30-year-long, unhealthy relationship with “you” at the beginning of the poem, “Barely daring to breathe or Achoo” (Line 5). She clarifies the “you” as “daddy” at the top of the second stanza where she boldly claims, “I have had to kill you/You died before I had time” (Lines 6-7). She compares her daddy first to larger-than-life elements, including “a bag full of God” (Line 8) and a “Frisco seal” (Line 10). Beginning in the fourth stanza, she refers to Germany and Poland, which slowly builds to the speaker stating in the sixth stanza, “I thought every German was you” (Line 29) and “I think I may well be a Jew” in the seventh stanza (Line 35). In the ninth stanza, she highlights the German aspects of her daddy, commenting on his “neat mustache” (Line 43) and “Aryan eye” (Line 44). She reflects on the comparisons she has made throughout the poem in the tenth stanza and clarifies her stance on her daddy: “Not God but a swastika” (Line 46). Related comparisons increase in the subsequent stanzas, as she mentions her daddy as a “Fascist” (Line 48), a “brute” (Line 49) and the “devil” (Line 54). In the twelfth and thirteenth stanzas, she mentions being “ten when they buried you” (Line 57) and the emotional repercussion of his death and her own attempt at death: “They stuck me together like glue” (Line 62). In the fifteenth stanza, the speaker makes a decision about her lingering relationship with her daddy: “I’m finally through” (Line 68). She adds to her list of descriptions in the sixteenth stanza, calling her daddy a “vampire” (Line 72) and suggesting another man she has known for seven years, presumably her husband, reminds her of him: “If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed two” (Line 71). In the final stanza, the speaker acknowledges that others disliked her daddy, too, and repeats with even stronger emphasis that their relationship is over, “Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through” (Line 80).