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The image of the poem helps the reader to relate to Plath’s harsh life. An example of this is when the devil is introduced with “A cleft in
your chin instead of your foot/But no less a devil for that”. (53-54). Again there is the reference to the foot, this one being suspicious
just like the origins of the father. The cleft in the foot, the devil’s hooves, is compared to the cleft in the father’s chin. This is developed
further with the images of the father and the husband who is like the father being a “vampire” (72)—a bloodsucking zombie who still
haunts her long after his death. Likewise, Plath describes how her life was being drained away as the result of a marriage, similar to that
of how a vampire drinks the blood of its victims.
The poem seems to have an irregularity in rhyme. “Daddy” is not a free flowing poem because it is able to split it up into three separate
parts. The rhyming of the ‘oo’ sound is evident throughout the poem. However, there is no regular pattern of which lines rhyme. These
irregularities reinforce the life that Plath lived without her father, one that could speak at happiness and then plummet to sadness in a
short period of time. Also the poem is written in stanzas of five short lines. These lines are like a Mike Tyson jab, short but extremely
powerful as an example of this, “If I’ve killed one men I’ve killed two—The vampire who said he was you.” (75) The powerful imagery of
these lines overpowers any of the rhyme scheme.
The tone of this poem is an adult engulfed in outrage. This outrage, at times, slips into the sobs of a child. This is evident by Plath’s
continued use of the word daddy and the childlike repetition “You do not do, you do not do” (1) and “Daddy, daddy, you bastard” (80).
Fear from her childhood moves her in directions that will take her far from herself. She also brings us starkly into the world of a child’s
fear. She uses words that sound like the words of a...
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