“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

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.)

God topples from the sky, hell’s fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan’s men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

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.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)”

Analysis, meaning and summary of Sylvia Plath's poem Mad Girl’s Love Song

74 Comments

  1. crazygirl says:

    the author did actually have a mental disorder. she had it starting in college and through most of her adult life. her book, the bell jar, talks about how she went basically crazy. that is the reason she doubting whether or not she actually met this guy.

  2. makayla says:

    idk what it is about this poem, i seen it in my ceative writing class awhile back.. & i just LOVE it!!!! idk why really no one else really likesd , but i listened to it as soon as i got home, and made my mom.

  3. musicdrawnincolors says:

    mad girls love song is such a bittersweet poem, that i can very easily connect to my love life.
    and zombie, ur an idiot. this poem was written in 1951. they didnt have acid then.

  4. Dandelion says:

    Mad Girl’s Love Song is such a bittersweet poem. She regrets how her love ended up, but does she really regret the love itself?

  5. zombie says:

    it’s about acid, obv

  6. dontia says:

    i love your poem i wish you was still alive to be making ore poems im in love with this poem

  7. analese says:

    i think this poem is stupid although i didnt even read it because poetry is sooooo GAY!! i love how this is so gay say what you want to me

  8. keenan says:

    She doesn’t believe that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Her lack of faith is obvious in that she only believes in what is proven in the flesh and her belief comes from her feelings, like most. She is mad because the greatest love she has felt/experienced has left her and she has no faith in finding a love comparable to that of which she has no more. But she has that love still, burning, just with no way to be satisfied herself.

  9. Nish says:

    this poem tells about the emptiness of love. She had a face in her mind and could not get the person abt whom she dreamt. It does not meen anyone ditched her, she simply could not find a person abt whom she has dreamt.

  10. rawri says:

    emma fell in love doesnt excist its fallin in love when your talking in the past

  11. Jess says:

    I should also mention that she doesn’t even meet Ted for another 4-5 years when this poem was written.

  12. Jess says:

    In response, this poem is not about her husband Ted Hughes. The poem was written in her first collection of poetry right before she started college at Smith College. It first appeared in a literary magazine.

    I’m not sure if she indended this poem to define a lover, or if she meant it to represent the expression of love itself. Either case, it’s not about Ted Hughes.

  13. Emma says:

    This poem to me shows her depression after her husband left her. And she is wishing she could have fell in love with someone different so she wouldn’t have to go through that pain and she can’t depcict reality from her past.

  14. adria says:

    her love is gone and she is experiencing so much sadness that her world seems dead. reality is distorted and she feels as if he was just a figment of her imagination. hopeless, she knows he will never return. time will pass and she will forget him as if he never existed.

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