Skip to main content

Sylvia Plath "Daddy" IOC

Excerpt from “Daddy” (Sylvia Plath)
1 In the German tongue, in the Polish town  
Scraped flat by the roller
Of wars, wars, wars.
But the name of the town is common.  
5 My Polack friend

Says there are a dozen or two.  
So I never could tell where you  
Put your foot, your root,
I never could talk to you.
10 The tongue stuck in my jaw.

It stuck in a barb wire snare.  
Ich, ich, ich, ich,
I could hardly speak.
I thought every German was you.  
15 And the language obscene

An engine, an engine
Chuffing me off like a Jew.
A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen.  
I began to talk like a Jew.
20 I think I may well be a Jew.

The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna  
Are not very pure or true.
With my gipsy ancestress and my weird luck  
And my Taroc pack and my Taroc pack
25 I may be a bit of a Jew.

I have always been scared of you,
With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.  
And your neat mustache
And your Aryan eye, bright blue.
30 Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You——

Not God but a swastika
So black no sky could squeak through.  
Every woman adores a Fascist,  
The boot in the face, the brute  

35 Brute heart of a brute like you.
Guiding Questions:
How does Sylvia Plath's biography influence this text?
What is the effect the Nazi and Holocaust imagery in the poem?
Here is the file of the IOC:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Okonkwo as a Tragic Hero (Things Fall Apart)

           Taking the cultural context of Things Fall Apart into account, there are a few reasons for why Achebe would characterise Okonkwo using the tragic hero archetype. The character of Okonkwo could be an allegory for the Ibo people as a whole, for example, since throughout the story we see various parallels between Okonkwo’s situation and the situation of the Ibo people and culture. In Part One of the book, both Okonkwo and the Ibo people are well established; Okonkwo has wealth, family, and stability, and the Ibo society is functioning as it has been in the years before. However, in Part Two, we see this begin to unravel, as Okonkwo is exiled, and the colonisers begin to arrive, introducing Christianity, slaughtering a village; bringing great change, and shaking up the cultural stability. At the end of Part Three, we see the full breakdown of both Okonkwo and the old Ibo culture. Okonkwo, of course, kills a court messenger, and then kills himself wh...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is Shakespeare’s larger purpose in his characterisation of Coriolanus in Act I?

               One of  Act one’s main purposes, in terms of the characterisation of Coriolanus is to showcase the aspects of Coriolanus’ personality and the context that it brings up. Shakespeare portrays Coriolanus as a decisive and effective battlefield commander in the battle scenes, by having Coriolanus give rising and encouraging speeches, “Now put your shields before your hearts, and fight With hearts more proof [strong] than shields” -Act 1 Scene 4, lines 33-34 and in lines 58, where Coriolanus calls on his men to follow him. The fact that Coriolanus is able to capture Corioles and hold his own against Aufidius is contextual proof of his skill as both soldier and commander. Shakespeare also details both the inner and physical strength of Coriolanus, through quotes such as: “The blood I drop is rather physical Than dangerous to me.” -Act 1 Scene 5, lines 20-21 and “…why cease you till you are so?” (context is Coriolanus is asking if th...
1 comment
Read more

Market Analysis: Why we should we invest in online advertising?

            Advertising as we know it is dying. Less and less people are buying and using traditional media (TV, magazines, newspapers, cinemas, radio, etc.), in which the traditional types of advertising are present. The age of television, radio, and paper will eventually come to a close; already the Internet is showing itself to be a dominant player in media, in countries that have developed their internet infrastructure to a satisfactory level. We and other companies have tried to keep up with the rise of the internet, by placing banner ads, pop-ups, and video ads, but people are getting around the ‘inconvenience’ or ‘annoyance’ of these ads via ad blocking software, making our adverts useless (since not enough people view them). However, there may be another, less overt way.             To the average person, having to sit through an advert before viewing a video/article, or view a site littere...
Post a Comment
Read more