Weldon Kees -- for My

Weldon Kees -- for My Daughter

"Looking into my daughter's eyes I read

Beneath the innocence of morning flesh

Concealed, hintings of death she does not heed.

Coldest of winds have blown this hair, and mesh

Of seaweed snarled these miniatures of hands;

The night's slow poison, tolerant and bland,

Has moved her blood. Parched years that I have seen

That may be hers appear: foul, lingering

Death in certain war, the slim legs green.

or, fed on hate, she relishes the sting

Of others' agony; perhaps the cruel

Bride of a syphilitic or a fool.

These speculations sour in the sun.

I have no daughter. I desire none."

In retrospect, Weldon Kees (1914-1955) suffered from depression culminating in his presumed suicide at the age of 40 when his car was found abandoned on the Golden Gate Bridge. His depression is reflected in his sonnet for My Daughter in which he employs extremely negative imagery in connection with the birth of a baby girl, an event generally regarded strictly as a positive and most joyous occasion.

Aside from Kees' personal issues, the foreboding imagery throughout the work might also easily be explained by virtue of the temporal context of the time period in which Kees lived and worked. Born the same year that the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo sparked the "Great War to End All Wars," Kees' apprehensive and pessimistic attitude toward life that is so clearly evident in for My Daughter was likely a reflection of the post-World War I era as the World was still learning to cope with the devastating consequences of mankind's newfound ability to employ modern technology for the purpose of killing many thousands of soldiers and civilians alike in an only several hours of warfare.

Analysis of Speaker's Attitude Toward Main Subject

Kees' first image of the "innocence of newborn flesh" is precisely consistent with those commonly associated with newborn infants. Immediately, the author begins to shift toward his sense of impending doom in the form of the "hintings of death" and the "coldest of winds" that presumably represent all of the profound concerns and fears about the state of the world and society that may be faced by the innocent baby girl. Kees leaves no doubt as to the direction of his concerns in his description of the "seaweed snarled" "miniature hands" suggesting that the infant will already be entangled by the some of the worst elements of human society long before she can have any responsibility, or for that matter, any defenses against them, as they occur while she is still an infant with "miniature hands."

Kees refers to "[p]arched years that I have seen," which is probably a reference to his growing into adolescence during the Great Depression and less than a decade removed from the Spanish Influenza epidemic that killed even more people than the "Great War." The author expresses concern that similar experiences "may be hers" as well, reflecting a parent's natural apprehension for the world that will be experienced by his child. In that respect, "foul, lingering" could be said to describe much of what Kees' generation would have experienced and expected for the future as they entered into adulthood. Likewise, "[d]eath in certain war" reflects the belief that the world of the 20th century was uncertain and, as geopolitical conflicts re-emerged, increasingly susceptible to even greater human tragedy and horrors than experienced in the First World War.

Kees also seems to acknowledge that despite the best efforts of loving parents, sometimes children absorb negative beliefs and cultural values and become very different types of people than their parents would have hoped. Certainly, in Kees' generation, social injustice, racism, and persecution of minorities was rampant throughout much of the country. In that regard, "fed on hate, she relishes the sting [o]f another's agony" is likely a reference to the capacity of negative social attitudes to infect even the most innocent creature to the extent that she becomes insensitive to the suffering of others, even enjoying their painful circumstances. The last image used by Kees reflects another fear of every father: that his beloved daughter will select a "syphilitic" (presumably a womanizer) or a "fool" for a husband and suffer the consequences of such choices despite her parent's hopes for her happiness.