Mad Girl’s Love Song

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.)

 

Sylvia Plath wrote this poem in 1951, two years before her attempted suicide in 1953. At the time she was a student at Smith College. The poem is often included with Plath’s novel, The Bell Jar, as part of the biographical information provided about Plath. The novel and the poem both parallel Plath’s own emotional struggles. The novel’s protagonist, Esther Greenwood, struggles with her role in society as a woman. The role of women in American society was changing, as a nation of rebellious youths were maturing into teenagers. As a woman, Esther feels trapped by the oppressive men in her life, which parallels Plath’s own feelings towards her father. In this way, the historical context of Mad Girl’s Love Song, as well as its connection to The Bell Jar enable the poems themes to be revealed.
The poem describes a girl who is depressed and feels isolated from the world. In the third stanza she describes how she dreamed that a man bewitched her into bed and kissing her quiet insane. However, the final line of the stanza suggests that her fantasy is unworthy of being taken seriously and only a mere delusion. In the fourth stanza Plath explains how both heaven and hell both fall or fade away as her depression takes over. The extremes of white and black are being wiped away, leading the entire world become gray. The final line of that stanza talks about how after the extremes are gone, the narrator gives up and her world drops dead. Another possible reading of the stanza is a feeling of abandonment. The narrator feels that neither God nor Satan care for her, as the angels and demons both leave. This feeling of abandonment contributes heavily to the narrator’s depression. Both of these stanzas describe narrator’s state of mind about the world, thus revealing Plath’s own depression and emotional troubles.
An important theme in the poem Mad Girl’s Love Song is how the narrator deals with her struggles by alienating herself. Two lines are repeated frequently in the poem. First, the line “(I think I made you up inside my head)” (lines 3, 9, 15, and 19) is repeated four different times. The narrator suggests here that the subject of her apostrophe is merely a figment of her imagination. Here, she expresses her alienation from the world, by suggesting that the reader is not real – like an imaginary friend she made up. The line “I shut my eyes and the world drops dead” (lines 1, 6, 12, 17) is also repeated four times throughout the poem. This line conveys a similar message of isolation and alienation. Not only does the narrator think the reader is a figment of her imagination, but she also closes her eyes in an effort to shut herself out from the world. In this way, the repetition of those particular lines literally drills the themes of isolation and alienation into the very fabric of the poem, shoving them directly into the face of the reader, forcing the audience to deal with these difficult topics.