Fatherhood

From the opening lines of her poem, Plath is haunted by the presence of her father. After all, the very first words of “Full Fathom Five” are Plath apostrophizing her father – she directly invokes him with “Old man” (1). In this way, Plath hints at the persistent sway her father holds over her, how his influence is inescapable. In fact, Plath even goes so far as to characterize the influence of fatherhood on her as transcending the universal experience and end of death – as Plath writes to her father, “The muddy rumors // Of your burial move me / To half-believe: your reappearance / Proves rumors shallow, // For the archaic trenched lines / Of your grained face shed time in runnels: / Ages beat like rains // On the unbeaten channels / Of the ocean (21-29). Despite her father’s supposed decease and the ritualistic “burial” that is meant to confirm his passing, the...