Briefly Explain "The Colossus" and "Daddy" written by Sylvia Plath.

Both of these incredible poems take the subject of Plath's
relationship with her father, who died when she was eight. "The Colossus" is much tamer
in its presentation of her father compared to "Daddy," as we will discover. The title of
this poem immediately makes us think of the Ancient Greeks and one of the seven wonders
of the world, whilst also indicating the immensity of the topic for the poet. The poem
begins with Plath trying to communicate with her father through poetry. The way that her
father is still such an important figure to her is made clear by the way that the
speaker says her "hours are married to shadow." In trying to piece together the various
remnants of her father's presence, she clearly wants to enjoy a relationship with him
again and to hear his words of widsom and consolation. Yet at the same time, the poem
begins by recognising the way that this is an impossible
task:

I shall
never get you put together entirely,

Pieced, glued, and
properly jointed.

Some
critics have pointed towards the way that the father literally lies in pieces throughout
the poem as suggesting a profound ambivalence concerning the poet's feeling for her
father. She seems to want to become reunited with him, but the way he is strewn around
the stanzas perhaps indicate anger at some level for having left her when she was so
young.

If "The Colossus" is ambivalent, it is obvious that
there is no such ambivalence in "Daddy" regarding the speaker's father. This poem treats
the father figure as one to be feared and that needs to be raged against, as is shown by
the controversial way Plath equates him with a Nazi:

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I have always been scared of
you,

With your Luftwaffe, your
gobbledygoo.

And your neat
moustache,

And your Aryan eye, bright
blue.

The poem seems to
represent the daughter's awareness of the unhealthy fascination she has had with her
father and the negative consequences of such an obsession. This poem is her attempt to
escape all of this and move on in her life. Thus it is that this poem resurrects her
father in some kind of tremendous emotional rollercoaster, where the speaker is able to
address him and express her frustration and anger at the way that his figure has
curtailed her life even after his death. The final line of the poem, "Daddy, you
bastard, I'm through," indicates the end of this tirade and hopefully the speaker's
success in moving on in life.