Vampires

Symbol Analysis

At the end of this poem, the metaphor for the speaker's father and husband, and potentially all men, shifts from Nazis to vampires. These men go from being depicted as living horrors to undead horrors. We know that the speaker's father is dead, so it's super creepy to think that he's come back to haunt her as a vampire.

  • Lines 72-74: Here, the speaker blatantly calls her husband a vampire. At first, we think this is just a simple metaphor – if you're really angry at someone, using the word "vampire" would be mean, but not terribly creepy. But then the metaphor is extended. The vampire has sucked the narrator's blood for seven years, probably the length of their marriage. This is a vivid metaphor for the pain that their relationship must have caused the speaker.
  • Lines 76-79: Here, the vampire metaphor is transferred from the model of the father to the father himself, who has died a vampire's death, with a stake through his heart. The metaphorical villagers, who probably stand for the speaker's friends or emotions, always knew that the father was a vampire, so they're dancing on his dead body.