Morning Song

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath• Born on October 27, 1932 in Boston• Her father died a couple weeks after her

eighth birthday• She attended Smith College where she

began to show signs of serious depression and attempted to kill herself

• She married Ted Hughes, a famous poet who was later accused of abuse

• Had two kids, Frieda Rebecca and Nicholas Farrar, but suffered a miscarriage in 1961

• Around 1962, her husband left her for another woman

• On February 11, 1963 she committed suicide by placing her head inside an oven

Morning Song

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cryTook its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.In a drafty museum, your nakednessShadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I'm no more your motherThan the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slowEffacement at the wind's hand.

Morning Song

All night your moth-breathFlickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floralIn my Victorian nightgown.Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you tryYour handful of notes;The clear vowels rise like balloons.

Musical Version of Morning Song

• http://www.johnmitchell.org/morning.mp3

Poem’s Organization

• Six tercets

• Free verse

The Speaker

• A mother who recently gave birth

• She’s in the process of caring for her baby, which requires a significant amount of time and energy– Despite this, the mother appears genuinely

devoted to her child– She’s undergoing post partum depression

The Speaker – Sylvia Plath

• Due to her numerous autobiographical poems, it can safely be assumed that Plath is the speaker

• As a mother of two, she has experience as a mother

• Her miscarriage most likely instilled a sense of unhappiness regarding her view of childbirth

The Speaker’s Attitude Towards the Subject

• Initially, the speaker acts as if she is almost indifferent towards the subject (the newborn child) because he seems inhuman

• Eventually, her indifference turns to annoyance at the child’s needs, but the baby’s first words reinforce her love of the child and are somewhat uplifting

First Stanza• This is the only stanza in past tense, all other stanzas

are in present tense and thus refer to present actions• “Love set you going like a fat gold watch

– The baby is born, he is given a kickstart on life through “love”– The birth is compared to a gold, seemingly wonderful watch

being wound and set for life– The gold watch symbolizes the mechanical and inhuman nature

of the child“The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald

cry/Took its place among the elements.”– The baby is thrust into life by the jolt of a midwife, and his

existence in the universe is now complete because of the cry

Second Stanza

“Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival”– As the baby is coming out, the parents begin to get excited

in approach of the birth• “New statue.”

– The Speaker compares the baby to a statue, indicating how impersonal she feels towards the child

• “In a drafty museum, your nakednessShadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.” – The hospital is referred to as a sterile museum– The nakedness of the baby reassures the parents as they

can take comfort in their clothes– The blank stare of the adults shows how distant they are

Third Stanza

• “I'm no more your mother/Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow/Effacement at the wind's hand.”

– This stanza begins to hint at post partum depression; the mother loses her sense of closeness towards the child

– The speaker feels that the child will serve as a mirror to the mother’s own life as it slowly disappears

Fourth Stanza

• “All night your moth-breath/Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:/A far sea moves in my ear.” – The “moth-breath” identifies the baby’s delicacy– The “far sea” is a metaphor for the child’s

constant noise; the mother is always listening for any kind of distress

Fifth Stanza

• “One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral/In my Victorian nightgown.”– “Cow-heavy” refers to the post-birth weight of the

mother and demonstrates how difficult it is to get up from bed

– This shows the mother’s true devotion

• “Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square” – The comparison of the baby to an animal is another

instance of the child appearing impersonal– The open mouth indicates the baby’s hunger

Sixth Stanza

• “Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try/Your handful of notes;/The clear vowels rise like balloons.”– As the dull stars are swallowed, day breaks and

the baby begins to speak– This stanza represents a huge shift from

previous lines; the poem appears almost uplifting in comparing the baby’s first noises to balloons

Diction and Syntax

• The wording is simple yet the phrasing appears precise and formal

• The exception to his is the phrase “cow-heavy”, which is used to demonstrate the uncomfortable nature of the mother

• The diction changes throughout the poem; while describing the birth the speaker uses bleak adjectives such as “drafty” and “bald”

• As the speaker narrates her life with the child, she begins to use slightly more pleasant language – In stanzas four and five she uses floral language to

describe her nightgown and her baby’s breath

Diction and Syntax

• Although most stanzas are comprised of sentences, nearly the entire poem is told through metaphors and similes; it’s not entirely straightforward

Imagery

• Until the last stanza, the speaker employs a variety of melancholy images including a statue-like description of her child and a comparison of motherhood to the “slow effacement” of a cloud

• While describing the baby’s noises, Plath uses balloon imagery to convey optimism

Conclusions

• The title refers to the last stanza of the poem, in which the baby’s first “clear vowels” are spoke after a difficult night with his mother

• As a whole, the poem deals with a mother’s relationship with her child

• After giving birth and caring for the child, she is finally rewarded with the “Morning Song,” namely the baby’s first attempt at speech

The Poem Again• Love set you going like a fat gold

watch.The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cryTook its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.In a drafty museum, your nakednessShadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I'm no more your motherThan the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slowEffacement at the wind's hand.

All night your moth-breathFlickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floralIn my Victorian nightgown.Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you tryYour handful of notes;The clear vowels rise like balloons.

Bibliography

• "Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) - Pseudonym Victoria Lucas." Books and Writers. 2000. 28 Apr. 2008 <http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/splath.htm>. – (biography)

• http://www.swisseduc.ch/english/readinglist/plath_sylvia/icons/plath.jpg– (picture)