Summary

“Full Fathom Five” opens with Plath directly invoking her father – she apostrophizes him in the first words of the poem as “Old man” (1). In the subsequent lines and stanzas, Plath describes the old man’s appearance, which seemingly melds into the surrounding oceanic scenery from which he originates. As he “[comes] in with the tide’s coming,” his “white hair, white beard, far-flung” are like “A dragnet, rising, falling, as waves / Crest and trough” (2,4-6). To this watery imagery, Plath adds a literary valence, referencing how the old man’s hair is also formulated from a long literary history, “in which wrinkling skeins / Knotted, cough, survives // The old myth of origins / Unimaginable” (8-11).

Next, Plath continues to emphasize the old man’s icy hostility and alienation, which closely mirrors the chilling extremities of the harsh, seafaring setting from which he originates – “You float near...