The poem “Summer Fruit” by Halsey hearkens back to the singer’s childhood to portray a broader message. It contains imagery of eating watermelon, such as, “Grainy sugar bites / and juice slick up my cheeks”. She recalls her mother telling her that if she ate watermelon seeds, they would sprout in her stomach and grow a watermelon. This is a common myth, one that I also heard when I was younger, that thrives on childhood naivete. Then, she writes, “I spent a spring and summer / eating the fruit / from the flesh of your lips.” This compares an intimate relationship to eating watermelon, which sets up the last two lines: “holding my mouth open. / To drop seeds into my belly.” By referencing the myth about eating watermelon seeds, Halsey portrays this particular relationship to something destructive. In particular, this tonal shift can be recognized by the lines, “Your grip on my cheeks / with a firm hand”. Suddenly, the nature of this sickly-sweet relationship has a more serious, dangerous edge by nature of a “firm hand”. Just as watermelon seeds fictitiously have a destructive nature, so too did Halsey’s relationship with this unnamed person.
The poem “Bitter Strawberries” by Sylvia Plath portrays a group of women picking strawberries while discussing the looming Cold War. It opens with the lines, “All morning in the strawberry field / They talked about the Russians.” There is a stark contrast between the idyllic setting of a strawberry field and the paranoia and fear that is perpetuated by the conversation topic. This shift is illustrated by the lines, “And the taste of strawberries / Turned thick and sour.” In other words, even strawberries, usually sweet and pleasant, were ruined by Cold War tensions. There is also a theme of innocence explored in this poem, such as when Plath writes, “’Don’t,’ pleaded the little girl / With blond braids. / Her blue eyes swam with vague terror.” This shows that even children were affected by the treacherous state of the country and the world, and that their textbook childhood innocence was stolen by the knowledge that nuclear war could erupt at any moment. Despite the dour conversation, the women’s work continued. Plath wrote, “Cupping the berry protectively before / Snapping off the stem / Between thumb and forefinger.” This is an example of the ritualistic, practiced work that these women do. They don’t stray from their task despite the existential dread that hands over them, both physically and metaphorically.
“Bitter Strawberries” by Sylvia Plath is similar to “Summer Fruit” by Halsey because both utilize the image of a kind of sugary fruit to explore a deeper meaning. “Summer Fruit” uses watermelon seeds to illustrate the nature of a past relationship, which was full of intoxicating sweetness but also had a dangerous edge. “Bitter Strawberries” employs strawberries, or more specifically the act of strawberry picking, as a kind of foil in the face of societal dread about the Cold War. The strawberries in this poem are more of a background feature that advances the central theme of the poem.
But I won’t let you kill again, that’s a lose-lose
Told me pick my battles and be picking ’em wise
But I wanna pick ’em all and I don’t want to decide
No more, no more, anymore
So we’ll sneak in the back
And then we’ll kick in the door
Tell me have you ever keyed a Ferrari before?
Oh no, oh I don’t anymore
And I’m not breaking, I won’t take it
And I won’t ever feel this way again
‘Cause you don’t need me anymore, ooh whoa
And I won’t ever try again
And all I want in return is revenge
‘Cause I don’t need you anymore, ooh whoa
So where do you go?
Pull up to the drive and I remember the codes
Yeah, the only fucking numbers you don’t hide in your phone
No more, no more, anymore
Climb up to the window and I’m breaking the glass
Then I stop ’cause I don’t wanna Uma Thurman your ass
No more, no more, anymore
And I’m not breaking, I won’t take it
And I won’t ever feel this way again
‘Cause you don’t need me anymore, ooh whoa
And I won’t ever try again
And all I want in return is revenge
‘Cause I don’t need you anymore, ooh whoa
So where do you go? (Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)
When I don’t need you anymore (oh-oh-oh-oh-oh)
And I don’t need you
My poet, Halsey, is also a singer, song-writer, and musician. The book of poems I have been using for my poetry blogs, I Would Leave Me If I Could, features many poems that later went on to inspire Halsey’s songs. Some of her songs even include snippets of her poems. The song “Killing Boys” by Halsey does not feature any exact lines from her poem “Battle”, but the concepts of both works are similar enough to infer that the poem potentially inspired the song. “Battles” lives up to its title, promoting a message of rage. In it, Halsey seems to imply that someone has wronged her, and that it has made her angry at the world. She begins it with the line, “Been biting my tongue till it bleeds”. This implies that Halsey has felt so much anger/frustration that she’s been causing herself pain in an attempt to hold it in. As for the reason for her temper, she writes, “but you made me angry / at the world”. This shows that someone, this unnamed “you”, has caused her emotional distress that has manifested as fury directed at the whole world. Comparatively, Halsey’s song “Killing Boys” also follows the theme of rage as a result of being wronged. The lyrics include, “Told me pick my battles and be picking ’em wise / But I wanna pick ’em all and I don’t want to decide”. This correlates to the lines, “My mother told me / pick your battles wisely […] I chose them all”, from “Battles”. Both of these works refer to the common saying, “pick your battles”, which is said to discourage someone from feeling too strongly about too many things. Instead, it counsels you to only choose to commit yourself to the most important conflicts. In response to this, Halsey defiantly says that she picks/chooses all the battles. This further develops her assertion that she is not just angry at the person who wronged her. She has chosen to take her feelings out on everyone and everything, and to let this negative experience deeply impact her disposition. In “Killing Boys” Halsey delves much deeper into specifics than she does in “Battles”. For example, she says, “’Cause you don’t need me anymore, ooh whoa / And I won’t ever try again / And all I want in return is revenge”. This helps add more context to Halsey’s situation. It can be assumed that Halsey had tried to hold on to the person who had hurt her, likely because of her feelings for them. But somewhere along the way, that person had caused her enough pain that her feelings shifted towards a want for vengeance. This further enriches the meaning of both “Killing Boys” and “Battles”. Both are written by Halsey, and both run deep with undercurrents of female rage. Below is a photo of other depictions of female rage, found in a myriad of films. Movies like Gone Girl, Pearl, Don’t Worry Darling, and Girl, Interrupted showcase the lengths that women go to to exact revenge when they are wronged, and how they regard the world with the same anger they feel towards a particular person/institution. Halsey uses both her song and her poem to demonstrate this concept.
The poem “Due Date” is easy to understand. It begins with telling the reader about Halsey’s premature birth—5 weeks early, to be exact. She describes how she compared herself to the other newborns, feeling smaller and inadequate. She says, “And it was on my first day on Earth / that I realized I didn’t measure up / and I never would.” Though realistically Halsey cannot recall her thoughts at that age, she uses this experience to connect to her enduring feelings of deficiency, which is clearly laid out in the poem. This poem is explicit in its import, so not much interpretation is required.
“Homemaker” is difficult to understand. I had to read it several times to glean the deeper meaning, and there seem to be several themes. Halsey talks about household appliances in a scornful manner, saying, “his-and-her sinks / but / just / for / you.” and “never seen a Persian rug look so homely”. She seems to be talking about an ex-lover who has a new, extravagant home, or perhaps an extravagant lifestyle. This could possibly mean that she believes he is compensating for some personal shortcomings with materialism. However, the line, “but I flipped houses / bigger than you before” convolutes that interpretation by adding another layer of meaning. Halsey might be referring to trying to “fix someone” in a relationship, but the reference is vague and so the poem’s true significance is cloudy.
Finally, “You Were First” is understandable after some effort, making it “just right”. The beginning of the poem is easily comprehensible, with lines like, “I guess I found it easier / For me to charm a man”. This makes it clear that the poem is about romantic relationships. Then, the poem narrows, talking about one specific person. Halsey writes, “Wonderful aching shaking nerves / Heart like it’s about to burst / The truth is you were here first.” Though the message seems a bit disjointed at first, after a bit of thought it’s clear that Halsey is referring to her first love. She uses the first few paragraphs to describe her many romantic experiences, then ties it all together by mentioning her “first”.
Halsey, born Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, is a singer and a songwriter of the indie pop genre. Her songs usually focus on her personal experiences, as do her poems. Outside of and through her music, she advocates for suicide prevention awareness and supporting victims of sexual assault (The Vogue). As a young adult, most of her life revolved around partying, drugs, and boyfriends, but she was able to establish herself as an artist despite her lack of resources (Rolling Stone). Her troubled and chaotic past, as well as her history with mental health issues, helps to enhance the reader’s understanding of her complex poems. Her poems are nearly all based on her life experiences, so we cannot seek to entirely know the context of each one, as they are likely personal. For example, “Homemaker” probably refers to a very specific and private snippet of her life, so some of the poem’s meanings are lost on the uninformed reader. {508 words}
Works Cited
Farzin Yarahmadi. “Hands Forming the Love Sign · Free Stock Photo.” Pexels, 30 May 2022, www.pexels.com/photo/hands-forming-the-love-sign-12282666/. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.
“Halsey – the Vogue.” The Vogue, thevogue.com/artists/halsey/.
Morris, Alex. “Inside Halsey’s Troubled Past, Chaotic Present.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 28 July 2016, www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/inside-halseys-troubled-past-chaotic-present-97968/.
I hope every single day you put your socks on backwards
I hope you cry at night
and can’t call me after
I don’t hope that you’d die;
just live to 75
And you spend every waking moment
Wishing you felt alive
I hope that some girl takes a picture of your sleeping body.
Wish you could go a single week
and not hurt anybody.
I hope your coffee every morning
is bitter and cold.
I hope you’re busy Christmas morning
and you miss the snow.
I hope your team loses the finals
I mean they already lost the finals
But the next one
And I hope that you scratch up all of your vinyls.
Hope you drink 80 miles
In your expensive car,
and run out of gas
in the wild.
I hope your knees ache
and your back hurts,
hope you lose your second phone
or can’t remember the password.
I hope every girl unites and they decide you’re a joke
But if they are anything like you
then I know they won’t
‘Cause their self-esteem levels are fatally low.
So you bury your pain inside them
after the show.
I hope your brother turns out to be nothing like you.
Hope another year passes
and you hurt even more than I do.
Used to live up the street from you
but since then I moved.
My new house is clean
and the sky’s always blue.
I sing in the shower
and I walk around naked
I love my whole body
though you once made me hate it.
I eat lots of pancakes
and drown them in honey.
I’ve made lots of handshakes
and made lots of money
I smile and sigh when I crawl into bed
‘Cause there’s no more scar tissue
inside my head
I heard what you’re up to
I’m glad that I left.
I feel like myself again deep in my chest.
Signed:
Sincerely,
Ashley
I wish you the best.
“Wish You The Best” by Halsey seems to be directed towards one of Halsey’s ex-lovers. After her signature at the end of the poem, she writes, “I wish you the best”, which is at odds with the bitter tone of the rest of the poem. This line, along with the title, creates a sort of irony in that Halsey does not truly seem to wish her recipient well. Halsey describes many scenarios that she desires for her recipient, such as “I hope your coffee every morning / is bitter and cold” and “I hope every single day you put your socks on backwards”. These things are widely regarded as minor annoyances, so their intention is easy to understand. This knowledge is important because it helps the reader understand the poem’s intention, which is to reflect Halsey’s resentful feelings about the recipient. Instead of a happy life, Halsey wants the recipient to experience enough of these vexations to make up for how she was treated during their relationship. The poem also possesses a lyrical structure and the occasional rhyme like, “I hope your brother turns out to be nothing like you. / Hope another year passes / and you hurt even more than I do.” Because Halsey is a singer, it makes sense that this poem is set up to be musical in nature. If she added some vocals and a backtrack, this could be a fierce breakup song on one of her albums. There are some lines that may reference private events that the reader is not aware of, such as “I hope that some girl takes a picture of your sleeping body.” It can be inferred that perhaps the recipient once took a picture of Halsey while she was sleeping, so Halsey is now wishing for the recipient to experience the same vulnerability that she was forced into. However, the meaning of this line is difficult to truly understand without prior knowledge of the relationship. After some thought, the lines, “My new house is clean / and the sky’s always blue” have greater dimension than they seem to. Halsey is not simply talking about moving to a new house with better weather. Instead, she is establishing that her situation and mental state have improved now that the poem’s recipient is out of her life; she is better off without them. Furthermore, she writes, “I love my whole body / though you once made me hate it.” This may connect back to the line about a sleeping body, which could be just one example of how the recipient made Halsey hate her own body. These lines are defiant, directly telling the recipient how their actions affected Halsey and how Halsey has now recovered from those actions. Personally, I don’t carry enough resentment towards anyone to truly relate to this poem. However, Halsey’s tone and style make it easy for the reader to be on her side, so to say, and support her declarations. This poem gives Halsey a format to air her grievances towards the recipient and exhibit how much happier she is now that their relationship is over.
