Understanding Sylvia Plath’s “The Colossus”
‘The Colossus’ is a pivotal poem by Sylvia Plath, serving as the titular piece in her only poetry collection published during her lifetime, The Colossus, released in 1960. This poem stands out as one of the most accomplished works in that collection and marks a significant transition in Plath’s poetic journey, leading to the mature voice she would develop in her subsequent works from 1960 onwards.
Composed of six stanzas, each containing five lines, Plath delves into her complex relationship with her deceased father through the powerful symbol of a statue—the Colossus of Rhodes, renowned as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Colossus of Rhodes was a monumental statue of the sun god Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes, Greece. Unfortunately, the statue succumbed to destruction during an earthquake in 226 BC. Although remnants were preserved, the citizens of Rhodes chose not to reconstruct it, guided by an oracle’s warning.
Summary
In the opening stanza, the speaker directly addresses the fragmented colossus, acknowledging the impossibility of restoring it to its former glory. The statue emits animal-like noises that are more distressing than the sounds found in a barnyard.
As the poem progresses into the second stanza, Plath’s speaker contemplates whether the colossus perceives itself as an oracle, capable of conveying messages from the dead or even from a deity to the living. For thirty years, the speaker has endeavored to clear the ‘silt’ or sand from the statue’s throat, yet she remains unable to decipher its intended message.
The enormity of the statue is emphasized in the third stanza, where the speaker describes herself crawling across the ‘acres’ of the colossus’s brow, carrying pails of glue and Lysol (a disinfectant) like a mourning ant. Her efforts are directed at mending its skull and clearing the ‘tumuli’—mounds that symbolize both burial sites and the weight of grief—burdening the statue’s eyes, reminiscent of exhaustion and sorrow.
The next stanza unveils a classical allusion: the connection between the broken statue and the speaker’s deceased father parallels that of Electra from the Greek myth of the Oresteia. Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung, a follower of Sigmund Freud, introduced the Electra complex, positing that a girl harbors a desire for closeness with her father while seeking to displace her mother. In the Oresteia, Electra avenges her father Agamemnon’s murder by killing her mother, Clytemnestra. Plath’s speaker mirrors this mythological struggle as she attempts to resurrect her father through her work on the statue.
As she labors to repair the colossus, the speaker observes a blue sky above, evoking the serene Mediterranean landscape that may have enveloped the events of the Oresteia. Addressing the statue as her father, she likens him to the Roman Forum—a historical gathering place in ancient Rome—where communication thrived. The description of her father as ‘pithy’ suggests a skeletal structure that remains after the grandeur of his past has faded.
As she unpacks her lunch, the speaker notes the ‘fluted’ bones and hair reminiscent of the acanthus plant’s blossoms, scattered across the horizon. She reflects that even a bolt of lightning could not create such a profound ‘ruin’. At night, she finds solace in the left ear of the statue, seeking refuge from the wind, spending her time counting the stars—both red and purplish plum in hue—overhead. With the dawn, the sun rises above the statue’s tongue, a vast stone ‘pillar’ that shelters her. Throughout the day, she avoids the sun’s rays, preferring to dwell in the shadows, away from its harsh glare.
The poem culminates with the speaker revealing her disinterest in hearing the sound of a boat scraping against the stones of the landing ground, a metaphor for her detachment from the past.
Analysis
‘The Colossus’ was penned in 1959, a period during which Sylvia Plath, under the mentorship of fellow confessional poet Robert Lowell, began to discover her unique poetic voice. This period marked a shift towards a more liberated style, one less constrained by traditional forms and influences. However, Plath was still navigating her way toward the distinctive voice that would define her later works, particularly the renowned Ariel poems, collected posthumously in 1965.
As such, ‘The Colossus’ serves as a transitional piece, showcasing Plath’s evolution as a poet while hinting at the more fully formed works she would create in the final years of her life. The poem also belongs to a larger corpus of works where Plath grapples with her father; the most notable of these is ‘Daddy’, written in 1962. Plath’s father, Otto, passed away when she was just eight years old, and his life—and untimely death—cast a long shadow over her existence and artistry.
The speaker in ‘The Colossus’ literally dwells in the ‘shadow’ of the giant statue she strives to reassemble, embodying her ongoing attempts at resurrection. The colossal figure of her father looms over her life, even long after his death, continuing to influence her thoughts and emotions.
Some critics, particularly following Margaret Dickie’s influential interpretation, suggest that the ‘father’ figure in ‘The Colossus’ can be viewed as metaphorical—a representation of Plath’s creative mentor or paternal figure in whose shadow she remains. This perspective aligns with Harold Bloom’s theory of the ‘anxiety of influence,’ rooted in Freudian concepts, positing that a poet must metaphorically ‘kill’ their predecessor to liberate their own creative expression.
‘The Colossus’ and ‘Daddy’
In ‘Daddy’, the speaker speaks of being reassembled with ‘glue’ following her attempt to end her life in pursuit of reunification with her father; conversely, in ‘The Colossus’, Plath’s female narrator endeavors to restore her father using glue. However, this effort is not simply an act of daughterly devotion; rather, it emerges from a twisted, conflicted love for the deceased father.
The reference to the Oresteia and the Electra complex suggests that there is a profound, perhaps even inappropriate, emotional bond between the speaker and her father. The phallic imagery associated with the statue’s tongue, described as a ‘pillar’, and the vaguely phallic nature of the ‘cornucopia’ in reference to the statue’s ear further underscore this complexity.
Thus, ‘The Colossus’ can be interpreted as a crucial stepping-stone toward the deeper, more intricate poetry that Plath would craft concerning her father, culminating in her most acclaimed piece, ‘Daddy’.