1
Morning Song

• Sylvia Plath
• Pg. 181
  

2
Morning Song

• Read the text
• General class discussion first impressions.
• Content of poem
• Language
• Themes

3
Pre-reading

• Context
• Plath wrote this poem ten months after the birth
  of her first baby, Frieda in April 1960 ..
• And just two weeks after suffering a miscarriage
  in February 1961.

4
Content Morning Song

• Morning Song is a counter-balance to Child.
  Here we have Plath the mother, rejoicing and
  celebrating the wonder of birth.
• The poem is split in half in terms of tone/mood.
• First half helpless, insecure and aloof from her
  child (emotion which can be associated both with
  miscarriage and the early stages of motherhood)
• Second half warmer, more secure relationship is
  depicted.

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Content Verse One

• This positive opening shows Plath at her best
  (mentally), her happiest. It is a rich image and
  Love opens this wonderful poem.
• She compares her crying newborn baby to a fat
  gold watch suggestive of the babys plumpness
  and how precious she is to Plath.

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Content Verse Two

• The new parents talk of the babys arrival,
  magnifying it which can refer to both the
  boasting of their child and how enormous the
  responsibility is that the parents now face.
• The location is a draughty museum a cold,
  clinical place where the child is on display.
  Hospital has negative associations for mother?
• Child is still seen as a rare and precious
  being placed in a museum

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• The actions of the parents are filled with
  uncertainty We stand round blankly as walls.
  They dont know what to say.
• They are overwhelmed by the new life.
• They are emotional about the miscarriage they
  both experienced.

8
Content Verse Three

• Im no more your mother
• -reference to the child she lost
• -reference to her living daughter
• Im no more your mother/Than the cloud...
  compares the complex relationship between mother
  and child to that between a cloud and a pool of
  water. The cloud produces the water that forms a
  pool, and the pool, in turn, reflects the cloud.

9

• Therefore, the mother makes the child and the
  child reflects the mother (physically, socially
  etc.)
• A child is a mirror image of its mother, but not
  a permanent one. As a cloud is slowly changed in
  shape by the wind, so too do the mother and child
  change shape. The child becomes her own person.

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Content Verse Four

• ?
• All night the duties of motherhood
• Second half of the poem sees Plath more
  comfortable in her mother-role.
• She is constantly aware of the childs breathing
  (possibly in fear of cot-death?)
• Moth-breath fluttering of childs breathing

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• flat pink roses resemble the childs delicate
  mouth and also symbolise maternal warmth.

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ContentVerse Five

• This verse shows Plath, again, addressing the
  realities of motherhood.
• One cry sees a mother jumping from her bed to
  attend to her child demanding motherhood, no
  more time to stare at blank walls!
• Humorous description of herself in her
  floralnightgown.
• She is cow-heavy nursing/breast-feeding the
  child which signifies a bond, closeness.

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Content Verse Six

• Dawn is breaking as it whitens outside the
  window
• The babys first bald cry is now transformed
  into a handful of notes Plath is not
  apprehensive anymore of the cry she sees it as
  music to her ears.
• Image of balloons celebratory image to finish
  on as it suggests the joy and celebration of
  childhood.
• The great festival of life has begun for both
  mother and child and is a rare high moment for
  Plath!

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Language

• Descriptive language LOTS of imagery. The birth
  of her child (and the happiness it gave her)
  seemed to inspire her as a poet.
• Direct and inclusive language she speaks to the
  child
• Written in tercets (3 lines)
• The magnificent simile that opens the poem shows
  Plath at her best (mentally), her happiest. It is
  a rich image of love.

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• Imagery In the first half of the poem the images
  she uses are often cold, stark and dark.
• The childs cry is bald harsh, the hospital
  is a museum clinical which captures her anxiety
  about becoming a new mother.
• Image of mother reflecting child is N.B. This
  begins their bond.
• Imagery in second half of the poem is warm,
  maternal and celebratory she has come to terms
  with her new role!

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Use of COLOUR N.B.!!!

• Plaths use of colour
• shadows (V.2) dark uncertainty
• versus
• gold universal colour of wealth and good
  health
• pink universal colour of love...
• whitens universal colour of purity and
  innocence.