Content warning for a brief mention of the Holocaust and the Nazi regime for those sensitive to this topic.
Regina Spektor is one of my favourite singers and this has been one of my favourite songs of hers for at least a decade. Basically since I was introduced to her. I've always know that this song is about suicide but I never realized until today that it is an explicit reference to a very dark poem by Sylvia Plath. I'm not super familiar with her work but I'll admit discovering this today really struck a chord with me. I feel a bit silly at how obvious the reference is that I missed it. I guess I'm just more in the right frame of mind to pick up on it now. The poem is titled "Daddy". She had a bad relationship with her father, who died when she was 8 due to untreated diabetes. In the poem she analogizes herself as a Jew in the Holocaust and her father as a Nazi/Hitler in his treatment of her.
www.poetryfoundation.org
I really connected with this poem for some reason. She wrote it about four months before her suicide by a combination of carbon monoxide poisoning and sleeping pills via her oven. (On a side note, I am super jealous of people in the past having such easy access to this method) She was in a depressive mode for months before her suicide and I relate to this so much. I never had a father figure in my life nor such a horrible relationship with my parental figures so maybe I digress a bit there. She had people who knew she was suicidal but she also managed to keep up appearances up until the end. I really feel like I'm in that mode right now. I don't know, I just felt like sharing this discovery, since I can't really talk about this anywhere else. Anyone more familiar with her work and have thoughts on this or the Regina song? Or if you're not, how did this hit you? The song is from the album Soviet Kitsch, which I highly recommend if you're into that kind of music.
Regina Spektor is one of my favourite singers and this has been one of my favourite songs of hers for at least a decade. Basically since I was introduced to her. I've always know that this song is about suicide but I never realized until today that it is an explicit reference to a very dark poem by Sylvia Plath. I'm not super familiar with her work but I'll admit discovering this today really struck a chord with me. I feel a bit silly at how obvious the reference is that I missed it. I guess I'm just more in the right frame of mind to pick up on it now. The poem is titled "Daddy". She had a bad relationship with her father, who died when she was 8 due to untreated diabetes. In the poem she analogizes herself as a Jew in the Holocaust and her father as a Nazi/Hitler in his treatment of her.
Daddy
You do not do, you do not do Any more, black shoe In which I have lived like a foot For thirty years, poor and white, Barely daring to breathe or Achoo. Daddy, I have had to kill you. So I never could tell where you Put your foot, your root, I never could talk to you. Every woman adores a Fascist,…
www.poetryfoundation.org
I really connected with this poem for some reason. She wrote it about four months before her suicide by a combination of carbon monoxide poisoning and sleeping pills via her oven. (On a side note, I am super jealous of people in the past having such easy access to this method) She was in a depressive mode for months before her suicide and I relate to this so much. I never had a father figure in my life nor such a horrible relationship with my parental figures so maybe I digress a bit there. She had people who knew she was suicidal but she also managed to keep up appearances up until the end. I really feel like I'm in that mode right now. I don't know, I just felt like sharing this discovery, since I can't really talk about this anywhere else. Anyone more familiar with her work and have thoughts on this or the Regina song? Or if you're not, how did this hit you? The song is from the album Soviet Kitsch, which I highly recommend if you're into that kind of music.
