"Mad Girl's Love Song" is a villanelle written by the American poet Sylvia Plath in 1953, when Plath was in her third year at Smith College. As its title suggests, the poem deals with themes of both heartbreak and mental illness. The speaker laments a lost love even as she repeatedly suggests that this love was simply a figment of her imagination all along. That said, as with much of Plath's poetry, the poem's meaning is ultimately open to interpretation. "Mad Girl's Love Song" was officially published in the August 1953 issue of the women's magazine Mademoiselle. Plath herself battled with mental illness throughout her short life, and died by suicide at the age of 30.
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The Full Text of “Mad Girl's Love Song”
The Full Text of “Mad Girl's Love Song”
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“Mad Girl's Love Song” Summary
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“Mad Girl's Love Song” Themes
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Isolation and Denial
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-19
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Love, Madness, and Disillusionment
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-19
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Mad Girl's Love Song”
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Lines 1-3
I shut my ...
... inside my head.) -
Lines 4-6
The stars go ...
... world drops dead. -
Lines 7-9
I dreamed that ...
... inside my head.) -
Lines 10-12
God topples from ...
... world drops dead. -
Lines 13-15
I fancied you'd ...
... inside my head.) -
Lines 16-19
I should have ...
... inside my head.)
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“Mad Girl's Love Song” Symbols
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Light and Darkness
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 1-2: “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; / I lift my lids and all is born again.”
- Lines 4-5: “The stars go waltzing out in blue and red, / And arbitrary blackness gallops in:”
- Line 10: “hell's fires fade”
- Line 12: “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.”
- Line 16: “I should have loved a thunderbird instead;”
- Line 18: “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.”
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“Mad Girl's Love Song” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 1: “drops,” “dead”
- Line 2: “lift,” “lids”
- Line 6: “drops,” “dead”
- Line 7: “bewitched,” “bed”
- Line 8: “sung,” “me,” “moon,” “struck,” “kissed,” “quite”
- Line 10: “fires,” “fade”
- Line 11: “seraphim,” “Satan's”
- Line 12: “drops,” “dead”
- Line 18: “drops,” “dead”
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Apostrophe
Where apostrophe appears in the poem:- Line 3: “(I think I made you up inside my head.)”
- Lines 7-9: “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.)”
- Lines 13-15: “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.)”
- Line 19: “(I think I made you up inside my head.)”
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Assonance
Where assonance appears in the poem:- Line 1: “I,” “my,” “eyes,” “dead”
- Line 2: “lift,” “my,” “lids,” “is,” “again”
- Line 3: “I,” “I,” “inside,” “my,” “head”
- Line 4: “stars,” “waltzing,” “in,” “red”
- Line 5: “arbitrary,” “blackness,” “gallops,” “in”
- Line 6: “I,” “my,” “eyes,” “all,” “dead”
- Line 7: “dreamed,” “you,” “bewitched,” “me,” “into,” “bed”
- Line 8: “sung,” “me,” “moon,” “struck,” “kissed,” “me,” “quite,” “insane”
- Line 9: “I,” “think,” “I,” “made,” “you,” “inside,” “my,” “head”
- Line 10: “God,” “topples,” “sky,” “fires,” “fade”
- Line 11: “Exit,” “seraphim,” “Satan's,” “men”
- Line 12: “I,” “my,” “eyes,” “dead”
- Line 13: “said”
- Line 14: “name”
- Line 15: “I,” “I,” “made,” “inside,” “my,” “head”
- Line 16: “loved,” “thunderbird,” “instead”
- Line 17: “comes,” “again”
- Line 18: “I,” “shut,” “my,” “eyes,” “dead”
- Line 19: “I,” “I,” “inside,” “my,” “head”
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Consonance
Where consonance appears in the poem:- Line 1
- Line 2
- Line 3
- Line 4
- Line 5
- Line 6
- Line 7
- Line 8
- Line 9
- Line 10
- Line 11
- Line 12
- Line 13
- Line 14
- Line 15
- Line 16
- Line 17
- Line 18
- Line 19
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End-Stopped Line
Where end-stopped line appears in the poem:- Line 1: “dead;”
- Line 2: “again.”
- Line 3: “head.)”
- Line 4: “red,”
- Line 5: “in:”
- Line 6: “dead.”
- Line 8: “insane.”
- Line 9: “head.)”
- Line 10: “fade:”
- Line 11: “men:”
- Line 12: “dead.”
- Line 13: “said,”
- Line 14: “name.”
- Line 15: “head.)”
- Line 16: “instead;”
- Line 17: “again.”
- Line 18: “dead.”
- Line 19: “head.)”
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Personification
Where personification appears in the poem:- Line 1: “all the ,” “world drops dead”
- Line 4: “The stars go waltzing out in blue and red”
- Line 5: “arbitrary blackness gallops in”
- Line 6: “all the ,” “world drops dead”
- Line 12: “all the world drops dead”
- Line 18: “all the world drops dead”
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Sibilance
Where sibilance appears in the poem:- Line 8: “sung,” “struck,” “kissed,” “insane”
- Line 10: “topples,” “sky,” “hell's,” “fires”
- Line 11: “Exit,” “seraphim,” “Satan's”
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“Mad Girl's Love Song” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Mad
- Waltzing
- Arbitrary
- Moon-struck
- Seraphim
- Fancied
- Thunderbird
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(Location in poem: )
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Mad Girl's Love Song”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Mad Girl's Love Song” Speaker
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“Mad Girl's Love Song” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Mad Girl's Love Song”
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More “Mad Girl's Love Song” Resources
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External Resources
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The Original Printing — See"Mad Girl's Love Song" as it first appeared in the August 1953 issue of Mademoiselle.
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Plath's Disappearance — The Boston Evening American on Plath's disappearance and feared suicide, followed by the reprinting of "Mad Girl's Love Song."
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An Interview With Plath — A 1962 interview on how Plath started writing poetry.
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"Sylvia" Trailer — Watch the trailer for the 2003 film on Sylvia Plath, starring Gwyneth Paltrow.
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TED-Ed Talk — Listen to a TED-Ed talk by Iseult Gillespie on the importance of Sylvia Plath.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Sylvia Plath
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