Daddy

“Lady Lazarus“ by Sylvia Plath (1965)

“Lady Lazarus” is published in the same collection as “Daddy,” Ariel, and, like “Daddy,” includes allusions to Nazi Germany and her Jewish ancestry to show oppression and the devil, in this case Lucifer, and God to show contrast in life and death. In this confessional poem, Plath addresses her personal experiences with death, either accidental or by choice. At the end of the poem, the simile “And I eat men like air” (Line 84) suggests her defiance against the men in her life, this time her doctors and her husband.

“Mary’s Song“ by Sylvia Plath (1965)

“Mary’s Song” is part of the Ariel collection and along with “Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus” is part of a trio of “Holocaust” poems alluding to Germany and Jews, as described by Kirsten Fermaglich in American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares: Early Holocaust Consciousness and Liberal America, 1957-1965. Like the structure of “Daddy,” this poem starts with an idea that becomes more and more complex with visual imagery, metaphors, and similes, ultimately tackling contrasts between destruction/death and rebirth/life, God and humankind, and domesticity and the expansive world.

“Sylvia’s Death“ by Anne Sexton (1963)