Comparing Poems 'My Father Thought It And Daddy'

The poems “My Father thought it” and “Daddy” describes the relationship of a father and son, and a sense of discomfort for the child being around the father. “Daddy”, by Sylvia Plath, describes the child’s father as a dictator-like figure, who is controlling and is demanding. “My Father thought it”, by Simon Armitage, portrays the teenage years of the author, and the father’s disapproval of his will for independence. The poems both explore what it is like to be neglected and disrespected by a parent.

‘Daddy’, by Sylvia Plath, depicts her father as a dictator-like, controlling, evil figure. The father has “A cleft in your chin instead of your foot / But no less a devil for that, no not”. This tells us that the poet portrays her father as the devil, by comparing her father to it. The poem states that the father has “A cleft in your chin instead of your foot”; cleft feet are usually depicted on devils, and Plath creates a juxtaposition between her father and the devil. She also states “Any less the black man who / Bit my pretty red heart

in two.” Plath says that her father was a “black man”. The color black has negative connotations such as fear and evil. The color red Plath’s heart is portrayed in juxtaposes with the black, which victimizes the poet as the father “Bit my pretty red heart in two”. The victimization of the poet further emphasizes on the father’s evilness.
However, Plath also expresses her love for her father, despite him not treating her well and helping her as a good parent. “Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,” claims that she thought of her father, who is now dead and in a body bag, as a Godly figure. Plath imagined him as a powerful, strong, smart man¬¬, and she thought he was the person who created and controlled her world. The portrayal of her father as an authority figure is also shown in the quote “You stand at the blackboard, Daddy”. We can see that the father is a teacher from the blackboard (usually in classrooms), who has authority over the students. However, we can see that Plath loves and cares about her father, even if he is controlling, from the way she calls him ‘daddy’, an affectionate term for a father.
In the last stanza, we can see the poet’s unhealthy obsession and affection towards her father. “I was ten when they buried you. / At twenty I tried to die / And get back, back, back, to you” Shows that Plath attempted suicide when she was twenty years-old to go meet her father again. “I thought even the bones would do”, meaning that their bones (dead bodies) would be next to each other in their tombstones. The repetition in “get back, back, back, to you” shows the urgency from the poet, who wants to go meet her father again as soon as possible. Also, the poem is written in free verse, and sometimes has an iambic rhythm. This gives the poem a playful ring to it, despite the dark themes such as murder. However, the structure is unstable. The instability signifies the state of her mental health, as she also states that she “tried to die” in the poem.
The poem ‘My Father thought it’ portrays the rebellious teenage years of the child, and the reality of having to rely on others to try and look independent. During the poem, the poet describes how he got the piercing. When the poet got his piercings, “It took a jeweller’s gun/ to pierce the flesh, and then a friend / to thread the sleeper in”, meaning he never did anything himself to get his ears pierced. He had no control over it, and didn’t get to choose anything. Even his father says “should’ve had it through your nose instead.” The father is referencing a cattle, who is “easily led” by other humans. Eventually, “the hole became a sore, became a wound, and wept”. The words “sore”, “wound”, “wept” are all lexical fields on hurt, and the personification of the hole symbolizes how the poet feels. He feels the emptiness from his regret of giving a “wound” to himself.
The poem also portrays the Father as an old-fashioned, distant man.

Armitage calls him ‘Father’, which sounds distant and formal. The father, on the other hand, uses colloquial languages. For example, “My Father thought it bloody queer” shows that he finds the piercings in his son’s ears ‘weird’, in a negative way. The father judges his son’s actions throughout the poem in colloquial terms, such as ‘bloody queer” and “You’ve lost your head”. The difference in the language the two uses for each other accentuates the distance of the father and son. When the father calls his son a “Queer” it can be interpreted that the son is going through his rebellious stage, as “Queer” can also mean strange. However it can also be interpreted as the father thinking that his child was gay, to emphasize the father’s old-fashioned way of thinking, as piercings were thought to be only for women and ‘queers’ during the first half of the twentieth

century.
‘My Father thought it’ shows the poet growing up, and doubting his own abilities and independence as an adult. Throughout the whole poem, we can see that the poet doubts his independence, even when he tries to become an adult. “Even then I hadn’t had the nerve” tells us that he was never fully convinced that he could survive alone. In the last line, “I’d take it out and leave it out next year” the poet has now accepted the fact that he is not going to fully become an adult. In the poem, the earring symbolizes adolescence. Also, the structure of the poem gives off his nervousness. During most of the poem, the writing is well structured, with a very strict rhythm and end rhymes, almost like a sonnet. However, from line twelve, the rhythm breaks, and becomes unstructured. This further emphasizes the poet’s doubt.
“Daddy” and “My father thought it” both portrays the distant relationship of father and child, but both have different takes on how the child thinks about their relationship. “My Father thought it” shows the child’s annoyance of the father’s old-fashioned mindset, and his ignorance to the child’s will for independence. However, “Daddy” shows the dilemma the poet faces of loving her father or wanting to kill him, after his treatment towards her. These two poems show the complicated relationship of a family, and the how the child’s feeling towards their parent can change drastically depending on their treatment from them.