Daddy (poem)

Sylvia Plath at twenty-eight years old sitting in her London flat during July 1961

"Daddy" is a poem written by American confessional poet Sylvia Plath. The poem was composed on October 12, 1962, one month after her separation from Ted Hughes and four months before her death. It was published posthumously in Ariel during 1965[1] alongside many other of her final poems, such as "Tulips" and "Lady Lazarus". It has subsequently become a widely anthologized poem in American literature.[2]

"Daddy" employs controversial metaphors of the Holocaust to explore Plath's complex relationship with her father, Otto Plath, who died shortly after her eighth birthday as a result of undiagnosed diabetes.[3][4] The poem itself is cryptic; its implications and thematic concerns have been analyzed academically, with many differing conclusions.[5]

  1. ^ Liukkonen, Petri. "Sylvia Plath". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 27 August 2008.
  2. ^ Gladwell, Malcolm (2009). Personality, Character, and Intelligence: Part Three from What the Dog Saw. Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0316086189.
  3. ^ "On "Daddy"". English.uiuc.edu. 1962-10-12. Archived from the original on 2008-07-05. Retrieved 2012-09-01.
  4. ^ "Sylvia Plath". Sylviaplath.de. 1963-02-11. Retrieved 2012-09-01.
  5. ^ "Daddy". Sylvia Plath Forum. Archived from the original on 2014-12-16. Retrieved 2012-09-01.