Songs From Poems: Mad Girls Love Song

Fisher: Mad Girls Love Song

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It's difficult to look at a picture, like the one above, of Sylvia Plath and imagine the darkness that must have been haunting her. Plath has become almost synonymous with her suicide by gas oven than by her impressive poetry and her semi-autobiographical novel, "The Bell Jar". Most of her work seems to have those shadows lurking though, the ones saying she was worried about her own mental health and that perhaps things weren't what they seemed in the pretty, intelligent co-ed and mother of two.

The poem "Mad Girls Love Song" was first published in the women's fashion magazine Mademoiselle back in 1953, having been written by Plath in college a few years previous. Considering its title, it was begging to be made into an actual song, and a number of versions have been made by different artists over the years. This version of the song, as recorded by the singer Fisher, was never released because they were unable to reach her estate for authorization. Instead, they changed a number of the lyrics (they're already slightly off in this version) and released it under the title "Sleepy Head" on the album linked for purchase above.

You can read the original poem text here.