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.)"

I like the rhyming and the rhythm in this poem. It is also very easy to read. The entire poem is a quote, which makes it different from other poems. The quotation marks make me feel like there is someone right in front of me telling me her thoughts. Thus even though the subject of the poem is in first person, the poet made it apparent that she is not writing her story nor with her perspective. From the title of the poem, it is obvious that the speaker in the poem is insanely in love. However, the love relationship is more than obsession. The speaker in the poem does not love a real person but someone whom she made up in her mind. Several times in poem. the speaker repeats “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.” When the speaker closes her eyes, nothing exists except her lover and she. This repetitive phrase in the poem makes it seem like she cannot stop shutting her eyes and stop thinking about her made-up lover. Even though she knows that her lover is not real, she cannot stop herself from creating a world where he exists. A love for someone unreal is madness, but an obsession with creating the love is extreme insanity.