Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Goatsucker" by Sylvia Plath dives deep into the realm of myth, presenting a nocturnal creature that haunts both livestock and human imagination. The poem opens with "Old goatherds" who swear that they hear the "warning whirr and burring of the bird" that works hard from dusk to dawn. The creature is identified as a goatsucker, a term that recalls the chupacabra of Latin American folklore, who drains livestock of their blood or milk. Through these vivid descriptions, Plath taps into ancient anxieties and superstitions that surround unknown, mysterious entities.

The moon cycles appear to dictate the potency of the creature's effects. "Moon full, moon dark," introduces an atmosphere charged with the magical and the eerie. The "chary dairy farmer" dreads the waning health of his "fattest cattle," haunted by the nocturnal "Goatsucker, alias Devil-bird." These lines encapsulate a core human fear-loss of sustenance and livelihood-made manifest in the shape of a demonic bird.

In the poem, the bird is an ambiguous symbol, a scapegoat for the mysterious woes that befall farmers and their livestock. It is the unseen creature lurking in the dark, a physical manifestation of human fears and uncertainties. It is described as having an "eye, flashlit, a chip of ruby fire," evoking both danger and an otherworldly allure.

As the poem progresses, Plath introduces an element of skepticism or perhaps rationality. She writes, "Yet it never milked any goat, nor dealt cow death." This line suggests a gap between the myth and reality. The poem thus straddles the line between the folkloric world where myths are living beliefs and the modern world where myths are dissected and questioned.

The final lines of the poem offer a sharp contrast to the tales of the goatherds and farmers. Here, the Goatsucker preys "only-cave-mouth bristle beset- / Cockchafers and the wan, green luna moth." The creature turns out to be relatively benign, an insectivore rather than a vampire. The menace has been a projection of human fears onto the unknown, illustrating how myths and legends often serve as metaphors for what humanity finds too uncomfortable or inexplicable to confront directly.

In "Goatsucker," Sylvia Plath masterfully employs narrative elements, rich imagery, and a tense atmosphere to explore how myths originate and function in society. She captures the essential human need to create stories that personify our fears, offering us a semblance of control over the unknown, even as she subtly invites us to question the foundations of our beliefs. The poem serves as both a vivid rendering of folklore and an invitation to scrutinize the stories we tell ourselves when faced with the unexplainable.

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...