"If I've killed one man, I've killed two-- / The vampire who said he was you / And drank my blood for a year, / Seven years, if you want to know. / Daddy, you can lie back now."
~lines 71-75 of Sylvia Plath's "Daddy" on pages 211-213 of Eight American Poets
When I first read this stanza, I'll admit I thought it was out of place. I decided to try and guess at its meaning. There are several references to WWII, namely Nazi Germany. In this stanza, the narrator said that the vampire drank her blood for seven years. Unless I'm mistaken, the war lasted for seven years. I think this may be comparing the war to vampires. It makes sense. Though war doesn't actually drink blood, there is blood shed. War doesn't care who any of the people are, just like vampires don't really care who their victims are.
Comments (1)
WWII was six years if you count the entire conflict, four if you count only America's involvement. I think it's more likely that the vampire comment refers to her father's time alive. Her father died when she was eight years old; it's possible that she remembers a particularly pleasant year of her father's life or that he died when she had only just turned eight or something along those lines.
Posted by Carlos Peredo | March 22, 2009 6:30 PM
Posted on March 22, 2009 18:30