Not The Bell Jar

"The Colossus" - Sylvia Plath

Skipping automatically over the title, as per usual, I read this poem with significant confusion. The apostrophe, "O father," in the fourth stanza originally led me to believe it was perhaps a poem being addressed to a father who had left. The poem seems to have sort of an angry, accusatory tone with undertones of bitter vulnerability, and that seemed to support my initial thought process. So did the last two lines:

"No longer do I listen for the scrape of a keel

On the blank stones of the landing."

I thought that was indicative of the speaker's having given up on awaiting the father's return.

But then I read the title and decided it was probably about the Colossus of Rhodes. I have no idea why she feels so angsty about this statue. I guess I might be annoyed if I labored thirty years on the same ginormous statue and felt it to be no benefit to me. But I don't know how she can complain about sounds it makes. She must be losing it up there in the guy's ear/cornucopia.