You do not do, you do not do, / Any more, black shoe.
-- Speaker (Lines 1 – 2)

Importance: These lines introduce “Daddy,” and are significant because they establish the apostrophic form of the poem and the attitude the speaker has toward the absent “you.” They show the speaker trying to take control of that which has controlled her, commanding the titular Daddy to “do” no more. They also prep us for the series of wild images that will populate “Daddy.” In the second line, the father is already a “black shoe.” These lines also work to establish the phoneme “oo” as one to which this poem will return throughout, both within and at the ends of lines.

Ich, ich, ich, ich.
-- Speaker (Line 27)

Importance: This line, found in the sixth stanza of the poem, is significant because it dramatizes the speaker’s inability to express herself in her father’s terms. “Ich” is the German word for “I,” and...