The villanelle is a form that is built on repetition, and as such, is often taken to be a form that is situated in obsession and the emphasis of certain ideals. The rich history behind the form coupled with the freedom that it gives in terms of expression has certainly made it a favorite amongst contemporary American poets. One such poet, Sylvia Plath, used the villanelle as the structure for her poem “Mad Girl’s Love Song” to create a powerfully haunting poem that delves into love and heartbreak; however, her usage of the old French form also raises the question of how Plath’s poem uses the traditional structure of the villanelle to its advantage.
Traditionally, a villanelle is a poem that consists of five tercets and a final quatrain with two repeating rhymes and two refrains, or lines that are repeated, that appear throughout the rest of the poem. Sylvia Plath’s “Mad Girl’s Love Song” is composed of nineteen lines and, as per the villanelle form, is divided into five tercets and a final quatrain. The two refrains characteristic of the villanelle form, always the beginning and ending line of the first stanza, are repeated periodically as the last line of each stanza with both being used as the final two lines of the ending quatrain. The rhyme scheme of Plath’s poem is the repeated ABA with an ABAA rhyme scheme in the final quatrain which is also a staple of the villanelle, so for the most part, Plath does not really deviate from the traditional model of the villanelle. She does, however, play with punctuation in the final line of the first stanza, placing parentheses around the phrase “I think I made you up inside my head” (Plath line 3), which I believe is done to add an emphasis to the poem’s refrain and draw more attention to the more neurotic feel of the poem as a whole.
Altogether, Plath’s “Mad Girl’s Love Song” does not deviate from the traditional structure or intricacies of the classic villanelle, but in my opinion, it is the way that she uses the poem’s structure to her advantage that really makes it stand out. In a sense, the villanelle is a poetic form that deals primarily with obsession, as Philip K. Jason stresses in his article “Modern Versions of the Villanelle.” Jason claims that, “When the reflecting mind or speaking voice comes back to dwell on the same idea in the same words over and over again, is it not fair to say that the persona is obsessed” (Jason 141). Plath’s “Mad Girl’s Love Song,” is a poem that deals primarily with the aftermath of a particularly devastating heartbreak, and grapples not only with the pain caused by lingering feelings, but the longing that the speaker feels for the person that they once had. The first line of the poem is “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead” (Plath line 1), and as this is one of the lines that is often repeated, Plath uses it to not only portray the speaker's immense despair, but also their desire for isolation or for everything to just go away. Often, when we are sad, the natural response for such is to try and shut ourselves away from everyone and everything. Throughout the poem, Plath uses this refrain at the end of stanzas which incorporate vivid imagery, such as the first and the fourth stanza. This, in my opinion, is used not only to add emphasis to the speaker’s depressed state of mind, but also to show their desperation in regards to keeping everything away. The world drops dead when they no longer have to look at anything that is happening around them, and as such, it brings an end to the vivid imagery and traditions into a reflection about the person that the speaker loved. The phrase, “I think I made you up inside my head” (Plath line 3), is repeated in parenthesis throughout the poem. As this refrain is repeated at the end of stanzas which deal with the speaker’s musings on their lost love, Plath uses it to add emphasis to the great mental turmoil of her speaker, and through the repetition of both the first and third line, she showcases the speaker’s inability to move on, which drives them into a sort of obsession that primarily deals with the great heartbreak that they have sustained.
Through the repetition characteristic of the villanelle, Plath is able to communicate the depths of the speaker’s heartbreak by emphasizing their inability to move on as, in a sense, they end up exactly where they started by the end of the poem. The villanelle itself is also packed with a lot of vivid imagery which symbolizes the speaker’s inner turmoil, especially in regards to the fourth stanza, which reads “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” (Plath lines 10-12) The scene described here is quite chaotic, and communicates how the speaker feels that their entire world is ending, which is why they shut their eyes at the end of it, as they only want to escape what is happening around them. The entire poem deals with a person that is struggling with their lingering passion for someone that has left them, and their inability to move on from it is echoed in the refrains and the way that they are used.
“Mad Girl’s Love Song” is a poem that uses the repetitive structure of the villanelle to its advantage in a way that allows for Plath to not only add emphasis to the speaker’s great inner turmoil caused by a heartbreak that they received, but also to showcase their inability to move on. This is shown most prominently through the repetition of the lines in the villanelle, which Plath ultimately uses to show that the speaker, though they have been reflecting on their lost love, has only ended up back where they had started.
-Claire Harris
Sources:
Jason, Philip K. “Modern Versions of the Villanelle.” College Literature, vol. 7, no. 2, 1980, pp.
136–45. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25111324. Accessed 27 Nov. 2023.
Mondragon, Brenda C. “Neurotic Poets.” “Mad Girl’s Love Song” by Sylvia Plath - Neurotic
Poets, neuroticpoets.com/plath/poem/madgirl. Accessed 27 Nov. 2023.