Morning Song - A poem by Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath - Morning Song

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

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

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

All night your moth-breath
Flickers 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 floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

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

Added: on May 29th, 2009 at 1:13 AM | Viewed: 22729 times | Comments and analysis of Morning Song by Sylvia Plath Comments (24)

Morning Song - Comments and Information
Poet: Sylvia Plath (Sylvia Plath Art) Poem: Morning Song Volume: The Collected Poems Year: Published/Written in 1961 Poem of the Day: Jul 11 2006 Comment 24 of 24, added on May 30th, 2009 at 8:28 PM. This is possibly one of the most moving and truthful poems on becoming a new mother. Who among us who have had children can forget the intense inner turmoil, fear,love, feeling of loss of one's identity, the rawness of one's own body as compared to the radiant perfection of the newborn baby, the sense of mystery and inhabited us in the aftermath of giving birth? What I also appreciate is the total lack of sentimentality. Wasn't it Norman Mailer who said that "sentimentality is for those who have no true sentiment"? So what if the poem stems from Plath's depression? So much of art stems from torment and self-doubt and that fact is not reductive - rather the opposite when we think of Goya and Donne for example. Motherhood walks a the tightrope of bliss and fear from the very first moment and Plath captures that truth wonderfully. Sonya White-Domergue from France Comment 23 of 24, added on May 29th, 2009 at 1:12 AM. I really don't like reading this poem, I find it so disturbing. i don't think this is a poem about the joys of being a mother etc etc... I think this is an expression of her detachment from her child which I think is the saddest idea in the world. The bond between a mother and child should be strong an beautiful but in "Morning Song" the baby is objectified: "New Statue." Even the act of making the baby has a satirical tone, destroying the so called most beautiful act of love: "Love set you going like a fat gold watch." The beginning of the child's life is not special and miraculous, but simply a process. "The miswife slapped your footsoles" - raw, harsh. This complements the next line: "Your bald cry/ Took its place among the elements." Elements - raw, harsh. The text has the feeling of tiredness and antiquity, which is wrong! Its a new baby! "New Statue/ In a drafty museum" and "Your moth breath." Eleanor from Australia Comment 22 of 24, added on May 29th, 2009 at 1:13 AM. This poem raises a concept that emerged largely after WWII: That numbness can be an emotion. In other words, this poem is not so much emotionless, despite Plath's evident numbness due to shock and anxiety. "We stand 'round blankly as walls." ~ Blank walls are ready to have something new written on them. "The cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own/ slow/ Effacement at the wind's hand." This is analogical of her life and how she sees her baby. Carly from Australia More Comments >> Are you looking for more information on this poem? Perhaps you are trying to analyze it? The poem, Morning Song, has received 24 comments. Click here to read them, and perhaps post a comment of your own. Of course you can also always discuss poems by Sylvia Plath with others on the American Poems poetry forum!

Poem Info
Poet: Sylvia Plath Poem: Morning Song Volume: The Collected Poems Year: Published/Written in 1961 Last read: Dec 9 2009, 2:00PM Poem of the Day: Jul 11 2006 Viewed 22729 times. Added on May 29th, 2009 at 1:13 AM.

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