Sylvia Plath's "Mad Girl's Love Song" is a villanelle portraying a young woman in the aftermath of a dramatic romantic abandonment. She imagines the destruction of the world and the afterlife while mourning the disappearance of her lover.
Key Aspects of Mad Girl’s Love Song
Tone
The poem's tone is serious and dramatic.
Setting
The setting of the poem is ambiguous, as much of it takes place within the realm of imagination. In reality it's likely the speaker remains physically in one place for the whole poem, but it travels through memory and an imagined cosmos.
Point of view
The poem uses the first-person point of view of a young female speaker—the "mad girl."
