You do not do, anymore, black shoe
December 24, 2020 3:14 AM Subscribe
Plath reads 'Daddy'. I've read the poem many times, but to actually hear it in her voice is an entirely new experience.
Pardon the language: Holy s---
posted by kfholy at 3:02 PM on December 24, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by kfholy at 3:02 PM on December 24, 2020 [2 favorites]
Fun story!
I have committed the sound of the first line of this poem to complete sensory memory. This is because, when the first Encarta on cd-rom came out, it had media samples, little audio or video clips related to their topics. One of the media samples for "poetry" was Plath reading the first line of "Daddy." I clicked on that audio clip SO MANY TIMES. So so many.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 3:21 PM on December 24, 2020 [6 favorites]
I have committed the sound of the first line of this poem to complete sensory memory. This is because, when the first Encarta on cd-rom came out, it had media samples, little audio or video clips related to their topics. One of the media samples for "poetry" was Plath reading the first line of "Daddy." I clicked on that audio clip SO MANY TIMES. So so many.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 3:21 PM on December 24, 2020 [6 favorites]
The first time I heard this poem was in my AP English class, taught by the lovely Ms. Kemberling. Through some marvelous stroke of luck the entire class was women, so we read Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Othello without a single boy in the room. I can't think of a better place to encounter 'Daddy' for the first time.
I found the general dread and rage in the poem to be so familiar that I copied it into my notebook and would periodically visit it. While my teenage relationship with my parents could be stormy, it was more that I felt suffocated living in a small southern town where I did not fit the mold of an ideal young lady. Also, [gestures wildly] society, man. And even then, my rage was small compared to the edifice of anger in Plath's poem, but it was a comfort to gaze upon it and feel the emotions that I finally had the words for.
posted by Alison at 9:30 AM on December 25, 2020 [1 favorite]
I found the general dread and rage in the poem to be so familiar that I copied it into my notebook and would periodically visit it. While my teenage relationship with my parents could be stormy, it was more that I felt suffocated living in a small southern town where I did not fit the mold of an ideal young lady. Also, [gestures wildly] society, man. And even then, my rage was small compared to the edifice of anger in Plath's poem, but it was a comfort to gaze upon it and feel the emotions that I finally had the words for.
posted by Alison at 9:30 AM on December 25, 2020 [1 favorite]
I ..want this thread to have more comments.
posted by elgee at 1:11 PM on December 31, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by elgee at 1:11 PM on December 31, 2020 [1 favorite]
Me, too!
I'll start.
We had a HEATED debate in my first college survey of poetry class about what Plath wants us to think of the speaker.
Dredged from memory...
Does she want us to take her totally seriously? Or like someone engaging in wild hyperbole as a sign of something else?
What do the words she rhymes suggest? Gobbledygoo, Achoo, Jew three times in one stanza? (Note that there is only one rhyme, really, througout the poem.)
The concentration camp comparison - what to make of that?!
Does Plath want us to think her speaker been pushed past some threshold, and her words are in earnest but are meant as signs of a deeply troubled person?
It was a fierce debate with some VERY harsh exchanges. Some were convinced the poem was an elaborate joke, and that taking the speaker seriously was a completely wrong-headed response. Other were incredibly offended by this and argued the joke-explainers were dismissing the real pain of the speaker.
And all this before any of us had taken a single critical theory course! Fall of 1990, so that was waiting for us!
posted by Caxton1476 at 7:44 AM on January 14, 2021
I'll start.
We had a HEATED debate in my first college survey of poetry class about what Plath wants us to think of the speaker.
Dredged from memory...
Does she want us to take her totally seriously? Or like someone engaging in wild hyperbole as a sign of something else?
What do the words she rhymes suggest? Gobbledygoo, Achoo, Jew three times in one stanza? (Note that there is only one rhyme, really, througout the poem.)
The concentration camp comparison - what to make of that?!
Does Plath want us to think her speaker been pushed past some threshold, and her words are in earnest but are meant as signs of a deeply troubled person?
It was a fierce debate with some VERY harsh exchanges. Some were convinced the poem was an elaborate joke, and that taking the speaker seriously was a completely wrong-headed response. Other were incredibly offended by this and argued the joke-explainers were dismissing the real pain of the speaker.
And all this before any of us had taken a single critical theory course! Fall of 1990, so that was waiting for us!
posted by Caxton1476 at 7:44 AM on January 14, 2021
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posted by Caxton1476 at 4:32 AM on December 24, 2020 [2 favorites]