Mad Girl’s Love Song

Mad Girl’s Love Song

By Sylvia Plath

“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell’s fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan’s men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you’d return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)”

Summary of Mad Girl’s Love Song

  • Popularity of “Mad Girl’s Love Song”: Published in 1953 in Medemoisella, “Mad Girl’s Love Song” is a melancholic poetic piece. Sylvia Plath, a phenomenal American poet and writer, paints the pain one feels after a great loss. Also, she scratches some reasons that push a healthy person toward mental illness. The poem, however, gained glory because it presents love as a figment of one’s imagination.
  • “Mad Girl’s Love Song” As a Representative of Pain: This poem is a representation of the speaker’s dark phase of life. It begins when she, the female speaker, who happens to be the poet herself, dangles between illusion and reality. It’s ironic when she says that the world dies when she closes her eyes and eventually gets back to life when she opens her eyes again. She feels like happiness is slowly departing, pushing her toward darkness. In the third stanza, she relates her pain to love as she explains how love spellbinds her. The speaker is no longer with her lover. Therefore, she tries to tell him about the pain she is undergoing. She thinks that the person will return, but it never happens. The speaker has to live with the pain of separation. The poem ends when she says that she should have loved a thunderbird who returns once winter is over. However, her lover is gone, and there are no signs of his return.
  • Major Themes in “Mad Girl’s Love Song”: Lost love, pain, sorrow, and depression are the major themes of the poem. This poem skilfully projects the agony of a lady who faced calamity in love. She seems to be expecting this hard blow of luck, and this shock has made her world bleak. She has lost her happiness, and the world around her has also lost its charms for her. She seems to linger between depression and denial to cope with her woes. Throughout the poem, she gets disengaged from reality by shutting her eyes and denying the existence of her lost love. Although she attempts several times to escape the despair of her life, she meets darkness and loneliness. Her effort to return to the world of light bears no fruit. She blames herself for putting her heart in a way that leads nowhere.

Analysis of Literary Devices Used in Mad Girl’s Love Song

Sylvia Plath used some literary devices in this poem to express the pain and trauma people face once they lose their love. The analysis of the devices used in this poem is as follows.

  1. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /e/ in “The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,” and the sound of /o/ in “God topples from the sky, hell’s fires fade.”
  2. Anaphora: It refers to the repetition of a word or expression in the first part of some verses. Plath repeated the word “I” in the first stanza of the poem to emphasize the point, such as;

“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)”

  1. Allusion: Allusion is a belief and an indirect reference of a person, place, thing, or idea of a historical, cultural, political, or literary significance. The following lines allude to the depression and anxiety the speaker faces, such as;

“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)”

  1. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /t/ in “I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed” and the sound of /n/ in “Exit seraphim and Satan’s men.”
  2. Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break; rather, it rolls over to the next line. For example;

“I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.”

  1. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. Sylvia Plath used imagery in this poem, such as; “God topples from the sky, hell’s fires fade:” and “I fancied you’d return the way you said.”
  2. Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between objects different in nature. The poet used love as an extended metaphor to show the pain one faces once betrayed in the name of love.
  3. Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from the literal meanings. The poem shows symbols such as love, pain, suffering, depression, and tension to show the intensity of love.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Mad Girl’s Love Song

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is an analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.

  1. Diction: The poem shows descriptive, formal, and poetic diction.
  2. Repetition: There is a repetition of the verse “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;” which has created a musical quality in the poem.
  3. Refrain: The lines that are repeated at some distance in the poems are called a refrain. The verse “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead” is a refrain as it has been repeated in all stanzas of the poem.
  4. Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are six stanzas in this poem, with each comprising three verses.

Quotes to be Used

The following lines are useful to quote the traumatic situation of any person suffering from anxiety, pain, or depression.

“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)”