Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Colossus is a poem by Sylvia Plath first published in her poetry collection ‘The Colossus and Other Poems’ in 1960. ‘The Colossus and Other Poems’ is the only book of poetry by Plath that was published during her lifetime. The title of the poem ‘The Colossus’ refers to The Colossus of Rhodes, an ancient wonder of the world that was a giant statue of the Greek sun god Helios astride two islands. An earthquake rocked the Rhodes island and the structure trembled down. The poet used the Colossus as an extended metaphor for the speaker dealing with the loss of her father. When it was standing upright, the statue was a symbol of strength, victory, and a seemingly all-powerful sun god. Kids often see their fathers as invincible, all-powerful providers, like Helios. The speaker loves her father to the extent that she worships him, and seeing him defeated by death seems to have shattered her as much as it did him. Thus, the poet uses the fall of the Colossus of Rhodes as a significant allusion. It symbolizes the speaker's relationship with her father and the impossibility of reclaiming the past. The speaker makes the reader feel the hugeness of loss she suffers after the death of her father.
Sylvia Plath was a confessional poetess, often depicting her own struggles, issues, and shortcomings in her poetry. It is also a well-known fact that she lost her father at the age of eight. Thus, it is safe to assume that the speaker is the poet, Sylvia Plath herself.
Structure of The Colossus:
It is a 30-line poem set in six stanzas of five lines each (quintains). The poem is written in free verse and the stanzas follow no particular rhyming scheme. The poet has used apostrophes, extended metaphor, symbolism, imagery, alliteration, allusion, caesura, and enjambment in the poem. The poem follows a conversational tone as if the speaker is conversing with the reader.
Summary of The Colossus:
Stanza 1 Lines 1-5
“I shall never get you put together entirely,
Pieced, glued, and properly jointed.
Mule-bray, pig-grunt and bawdy cackles
Proceed from your great lips.
It’s worse than a barnyard.”
The speaker begins with an apostrophe, expressing her exasperation to “you”, the Colossus of Rhodes, as she tries to perform a huge project. She addresses the broken ‘colossus’ or statue directly. The speaker seems to be admitting defeat. She's sure she'll never get this job done. Words like "pieced" and "glued" also conjure the image of someone trying to put together the shattered remnants of a statue. The speaker hints at the extended metaphor she has begun to elucidate. The remnants of the statue represent the memories of her father, who is no more.
The vivid sounds of animals create a cacophony, symbolizing chaos and lack of dignity. This imagery suggests that the remnants of the Colossus, once grand, have become something grotesque and disorganized in the speaker’s mind. The degrading comparison of the remnants of the statue to ‘worse than a barnyard’ suggests a sense of disappointment and frustration. The barnyard symbolizes raw, uncultured chaos, contrasting sharply with the grandeur one might expect from the giant Colossus in its grandeur.
Stanza 2 Lines 6-10
“Perhaps you consider yourself an oracle,
Mouthpiece of the dead, or of some god or other.
Thirty years now I have labored
To dredge the silt from your throat.
I am none the wiser.”
The speaker continues to mock the fallen statue of the Colossus while expressing her frustration at her loss. The speaker alludes to the Oracle of Delphi, who was known to offer prophecies from Apollo. She speculates that the colossus views itself as some sort of ‘oracle’ able to transmit the words of the dead, or even the words of some god, to the living. The speaker has tried hard for thirty years to remove the ‘silt’ or sand from the statue’s throat, but still cannot make sense of what it is trying to say. She may be mocking the fallen statue, but she's "labored" for "thirty years" to try and clear out its silty throat. It seems like, even though she resents it, she must care for it deeply in some way. The speaker still does not clarify the significance of the remnants of the statue or her relationship with it. Though she does clarify that it is something she once expected to get wisdom from, but now just can't—no matter how hard she tries.
Stanza 3 Lines 11-15
“Scaling little ladders with glue pots and pails of lysol
I crawl like an ant in mourning
Over the weedy acres of your brow
To mend the immense skull plates and clear
The bald, white tumuli of your eyes.”
In the third stanza, the speaker describes the vastness of the statue. The speaker describes herself crawling over the ‘acres’ of its brow or forehead, carrying pails of glue and Lysol (a disinfectant) like an ant in ‘mourning’ for this broken colossus. She is trying to mend its skull and clear the ‘tumuli’ – mounds, but also burial mounds, specifically – from the statue’s eyes. ‘Ant in mourning’ offers an excellent simile. One may never see an ant ‘mourning.’ The idea is that the memories and the loss of the grandeur of the statue are so enormous that no matter how much she tries, she cannot cover it. The speaker is yet not ready to actually declare or reveal the essence of her extended metaphor.
Stanza 4 Lines 16-20
“A blue sky out of the Oresteia
Arches above us. O father, all by yourself
You are pithy and historical as the Roman Forum.
I open my lunch on a hill of black cypress.
Your fluted bones and acanthine hair are littered”
In the 16th line, the poet uses caesura, breaking the line, and using a full stop in the middle of the line. And then she reveals the extended metaphor. She addresses “you”, the Colossus, as ‘O father,’ her dead father. The speaker also alludes to Electra mourning her murdered father, Agamemnon, from the trilogy of Greek tragedies by Aeschylus, Oresteia.
The word "pithy" implies substance and conciseness, suggesting that the father's essence is significant yet perhaps overshadowed by the passage of time. Comparing the father to the Roman Forum, a place of public life and history, suggests that he has left a lasting impact on the speaker's life. However, it also implies that he is now a relic of the past, revered yet distant.
The speaker takes a break and tries to go away from the colossus, the memories of her father. But as she sits to take her lunch, she notices, the ‘fluted bones’ and ‘acanthine hair’ of the colossus, her father littered here and there. This suggests that even if the speaker tries to get rid of the memories and grief of her father’s loss, she is unable to. It suggests that the speaker is left to sift through the remnants of their relationship.
Stanza 5 Lines 21-25
“In their old anarchy to the horizon-line.
It would take more than a lightning-stroke
To create such a ruin.
Nights, I squat in the cornucopia
Of your left ear, out of the wind,”
The poet used enjambment in between the two stanzas while using the first line of the fifth stanza to complete the sentence of the previous line in stanza four. The old "fluted bones and acanthine hair" appear everywhere stretching out to the horizon. Escaping from the memories and the sense of loss because of her father’s demise is impossible for her. The use of ‘old anarchy’ offers a sense of just how long the speaker has suffered this loss. A cornucopia symbolizes abundance and nourishment, suggesting that the speaker is seeking solace or understanding from her father's memory. The ear represents listening and communication, indicating that the speaker wishes to express or communicate her fears, troubles, and feelings of loss to her father, in death, out of the troubled life.
Stanza 6 Lines 26-30
“Counting the red stars and those of plum-color.
The sun rises under the pillar of your tongue.
My hours are married to shadow.
No longer do I listen for the scrape of a keel
On the blank stones of the landing.”
Stars often symbolize hope, guidance, or the remnants of what once was. The act of counting suggests a yearning for order or understanding amidst chaos. The speaker feels or desires to communicate with her father as he could offer some guidance and recluse from the troubles of life to her. The sun often represents enlightenment, rebirth, or clarity. Here, it rising "under the pillar of your tongue" suggests that the speaker associates her father’s voice or words with enlightenment or a source of strength. However, she notices that her hopes are futile, her father is no more, and he will never come back and thus, she asserts that her ‘hours are married to shadow.’ Despite the sun rising, the sun that could clarify her darkness will never rise. She feels forever bound by the depression caused by the death of her father.
In the last lines, the poet expresses her exasperation and hopelessness. The keel of a boat represents balance and steadiness which she lacks. She is no longer waiting to hear the arrival of a boat or wondering if her father is going to turn up. She knows she can’t put her father, the colossus back together again but she can’t stop trying. She has no escape.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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