Daddy

The poem features quintains, or 5-line stanzas. Like many of the poems in the Ariel collection, including “Mary’s Song” with tercets and “Edge” with couplets, “Daddy” contains a consistent number of lines per stanza. Unlike the consistent form, the meter and rhyme scheme are irregular. The English and occasional German words at the end of the lines that rhyme all end with “oo,” including “Achoo” (Line 5) and “du” (Line 15). Off-rhyme is also sometimes present with words like “foot” (Line 3). The sound of “oo,” or “ew,” feels like disgust is in the speaker’s mouth as she spits out each word at her father. The irregular with the regular regarding the form and meter relate to the thematic contrasts in the content of the poem between life and death and idolatry vs. condemnation, just to name a few.

Alluding to the events of the Holocaust allows Plath to start with a simile and then move into a metaphor that she extends throughout the poem. Plath begins with German references in Stanza 3, but in Stanza 6 she states,” I thought every German was you” (Line 29).