TPCASTT

Mad Girl's Love Song by Sylvia Plath

"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.)"

TPCASTT ANALYSIS
T(Title)- By looking at the title, the phrase MAD girl's love song immediately calls out to the reader of the poem. It indicates that it's not just another love poem but suggests that the narrator is a 'mad' or mentally insane girl.

P(Paraphrase)- All the stanzas in this poem are descriptive of someone that the mad girl supposedly loves. The dreamy descriptions that have been used in the poem show that the girl is probably in a dazed, dreamlike state while she is imagining thoughts in her head. This is strongly emphasized by the bracketed phrases at the end of each sentence, 'I think I made you up inside my head'.

C(Connotations)- The rhythmic flow and regular rhyme schemes of this poem is what makes it so catchy for the reader. The pattern of the rhyme is: A, B, A, B, C, B, and so on. There are also a lot of imagery used in this poem. Colours have been mentioned such as blue, red, black, and gold, so I think each colour represents what each stanza indicates emotionally. I also noticed personifications, such as 'world drops dead', 'stars go waltzing', 'blackness gallops in'. There are some very strong lines in this poem that sound quite hyperbolic, like this phrase which was repeatedly used 'I close my eyes and the world drops dead'.

A(Attitude)- There are a lot of emotions portrayed in this poem. The narrator seems to have mixed emotions and is very moody in the way she talks. At times I felt that there was a sense of emptiness and hopeless loneliness that filled the stanzas. I think the poem involves a lot of imagination too, and I can feel tones of excitement from the voice of the narrator. I am also guessing that at times I thought the descriptions used were a little borderline hysteric, as I assume that it is an 'insane' girl who is speaking in the poem.

S(Shift)- I think there was a significant shift in the fifth and sixth stanzas, where the exuberant attitude went down a notch. The tone changed into a more mellow and subdued voice, like the narrator was tired or something. When it said 'I fancied you'd return the way you said' I think it indicated that after all the fantasies that the crazy girl had, she was still reminded and haunted by someone who was meant to return to her. Perhaps it was the person she once loved that no matter how crazy anything had driven her, she still couldn't get those memories out of her head. I wouldn't say the last stanza sounds bitter, but it's definitely not filled with happiness. The line 'I should have loved a thunderbird instead; At least when spring comes they roar back again.' shows that she may have some regrets about the choices she made about who she ought to have loved. The second part of that phrase strongly indicates that she would prefer to love a thunderbird because they still come back. This shows that she was probably abandoned and left behind and that the girl is having a hard time coping with all that has happened to her.

T(Theme)- The obvious theme would be love, portrayed from a different point of view. This poem's narrator is a 'Mad Girl', so there is a slight twist to the insight that it gives the reader about love. It shows that it's not always something that will make you happy. Also it shows that a lot of the universal idea of 'perfect' love is much credited to the vast imagination of human beings. Like the narrator, there are a lot of things that we wish for to happen, even though deep inside we are aware that things don't always work out the way we want it to. There's also a possibility that the poem shows how love can drive someone 'crazy'-both literally and figuratively. The variety of emotions that I've read in this poem shows that love is not one monotone, constant emotion. It's a rollercoaster of emotions and challenges that people have to go through to endure. This poem shows how love can affect people in very different ways depending on the situation, and that it's one of the most fragile things that people get involved in.

T(Title)- Overall I think the title pretty much sums up the general idea of the poem quite well. It is very eye-catching and gives enough hints to tell the reader what it may be about, but not too much that it becoems predictable.