Write up of Slyvia Plath- Morning Song.

Sylvia Plath- Morning Song

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your foot soles, 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 your mother
Than the cloud that distils a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind's hand. 

All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the fat 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. 

Stanza one 
  As the poem opens a clear metaphor is used, as to express why this poem was made because of how the subject was made in itself.

''Love set you going''

Plath cleverly uses a metaphor to open her poem, to express why the whole poem was made in the first place, because of love. This love made the baby, as which is the subject of poem and so this metaphor cleverly introduces the audience to the subject. This sexual image, also shows how the poem is modern because sex is freely spoke of however it would not of been in an older poem.

  Also, cleverly done by Plath is the use of a simile to symbolize the preciousness of the time at hand and of the main subject, the baby.

''Love set you going like a fat gold watch'' 

Again, Plath does this to hide what is really going on in the line, as she is expresses the baby is like a fat gold watch which really a baby is completely the opposite. However, this is done to symbolize the gold as the preciousness of the time because of the new birth of a little baby. Also, hidden in this line is the rich image, of the expensiveness of the gold which could be to portray of how the mother will have a lot of expense throw at her to bring up this baby. The 'fat' of this particular line could be seen as to the fatness of the baby, as baby are usually quite chunky when there are born, which is a very good sign. A deeper hidden aspect here, is the meaning of the iambic pentameter. As the line meets this, it is almost like the noise of a tick-toking clock when spoke, reflecting on the watch and precious time. If furthermore looked in to, it could be showing how fast this time goes and how the baby will soon grow up. 

  Furthermore, Plath uses create imagery of nakedness to express how the baby is new and fresh to the world. 

''Your bald cry''

This imagery of the baby having a bald cry expressed to the audience of how fresh and new the baby is. Plath does this to show how the baby is exposed to this new world, as not that long ago the baby was in the womb yet now in the real world. 

Stanza two
  As this new stanza opens, a personal pronoun is used to express that their is a family involved with the birth of this new baby. 

''Our voices echo''

This personal pronoun is the first used in the poem, as in the first stanza we are just introduced to the baby and no family. However, we can now assume that the persona is the mother or father in fact, of the new born baby as 'our' suggest that there is a sense of family. As well as the, the 'echo' used emphasizing the voices of the people around who can talk, which expresses how their is family because of the voices of grown ups around the new born baby.

  Moving on, Plath adds the sense of the old and new coming together in the poem, which adds to difference of the poem.

''New statue, 

In a drafty museum''

Here, the old and new are used as great metaphors for the new born baby and the older people around this baby. As the new statue, is a metaphor for the baby as it is new into the world and obviously being a baby it can't do very much e.g. moving wise, which is the same elements of which we would associate with a statue. However, the draft museum is a metaphor for one of the two, being the hospital which could express how the baby is just another number because of all the babies which have arrived here. Although, it could also be a much more complex metaphor of which the people around the baby are represented as old and drafty, which links to the next point. 

As, the stanza continues on, it is made noticeable that there is more than one person with the baby now. 

''We stand round blankly as walls''

Here, we are introduced to a 'we', which is most probably going to be the mother and the father of the baby. This quotation expresses how the parents have become unimportant because of the arrival of their baby, of which could explain why the parents where previously described metaphorically as 'drafty'.

Stanza three
  In the previous stanza where we first introduced to a personal pronoun, however this has now been overtaken by a first person perspective.

''I'm no more your mother''

This first person perspective tells us of which, that the persona of the poem is in fact the baby's mother because of the lexis chosen to follow this particular personal pronoun of 'I'm'. The choice of lexis here, implies that the mother is feeling her lost of importance around the baby as she is just a blur now, or almost is. It is almost as if she is having second thoughts on whether she 'likes' her baby or not!

The feelings of the mother are expressed more, as we begin to realize more of how she is feeling and why she is feeling this way.

''Than the cloud that distils a mirrors to reflect its own slow''

In this quotation, Plath cleverly uses personification of the cloud to express how the mother is feeling distant. With a 'cloud' seeming far away, this shows how the mothers feelings are also far away not only because of what she is thinking about but because she is also feeling very distant due to the attention being smothered on the baby. Furthermore, the distilling of a mirror is the condensation caused between hot and cold which therefore creates a blur. This distilling of the mirror is used as a metaphor by Plath to express how the mother is feeling like a blur compared to the baby.

Stanza four  Plath opens her fourth stanza of this poem, by using imagery of nature, in which opens many doors to meaning and expresses what the poem is about. 

''All night your moth-breath''

This imagery of the baby having a moth-breath seems to be very distant, and as if this is completely impossible, however after reading into this imagery is it soon clear of the relationship between the new born baby and a moth-breath being described. As thinking of a moth, you can realize it is very small, delicate and fragile which would be a perfect description of the baby also, with it only being a few hours or a day old and it is in fact quite similar to a moth throughout their life. This naturalistic imagery carries on throughout the stanza, as Plath then using a relevant verb is order to express the movement. 

''Flickers among the flat pink roses.''

This relevant verb of 'flickers' is a metaphor for the movement of the moth wings, despite this moth not actually being there Plath uses this metaphor to link the baby and the moth together to give the imagery a sense of realism. Furthermore, more imagery of nature is used as the lips of the baby's are described as being 'flat pink roses'. Plath uses this imagery of the flat pink roses as the babies lips to express the life and the birth of the baby which has just recently happened, shows how the baby how bright red lips of life. 

  Finally, as this stanza is full of imagery of nature, it is only right that it ends this way. As the stanza comes to an end, we are furthermore introduced to this distance of the mother and baby which has been frequent in the previous stanza. 

''A far sea moves in my ear.'' 

Plath uses this imagery of nature to express the detachment between the baby and the mother, as they are both in the same room yet the mother feels so distant for her new born child. The far sea could be seen as the detachment of such a relationship, it is almost as if Plath wants the audience to see the mother has no fixture and in fact she is almost swept away by the arrival of this baby because of her own feelings for herself, the person being the mother does not know how to feel about the child.

Stanza five
  In this penultimate stanza, Plath links her choice of words to the beginning of the poem where she describes the baby's cry as a 'bald cry', get as the poem has progressed this description has changed.

''One cry, and I stumble from bed''

Here, the persona is describing how now as soon as she hears one cry from the baby, she is soon to fetch it attention. This seems different to the feelings from the persona in the last stanza, which could express how the persona, of which is the mother of the new born baby, is changing their feelings towards this baby and how she feels about it. Plath lets the audience see this by using simple sentences to do so, as for example at the start of the poem where the person is not sure the baby's cry is described as 'bald' being exposed and naked to the real world, yet now the person, the mother, has realized that she is connected to this baby and it is her job to welcome the baby and help it fit it with the real world.

  Yet, as the relationship between the baby and the mother become much more connected, the mother is being to realize what child birth has turned her into.

''I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral'' 

Plath has used great words to describe how the mother's body has changed in order to bring her baby up in the world. The way in which the mother is described becomes very unfeminine and animalistic, as first describes herself stumbling from bed of which does not usually connote with the gender of females making the movement seem unfeminine. This unfeminine aspect is a huge juxtaposition from the poem itself, as the poem is about the persona and her new born baby, yet after this feminine experience the female begins to feel very unfeminine. Furthermore, the cow heavy of which is almost describing the mother gives animalistic imagery as it almost certainly a metaphor for the fact of the mother having milk inside her, in order to feed her baby. The way in which this is expressed by Plath shows how this is a modern and physical poem. In contrast to this, the persona also describes herself as wearing floral, which is in fact very feminine and fashionable especially at the time of publication.

Stanza six

  Plath uses a technique of enjambment to join the two final stanza's together, of which is introduced with a sibilance. 

''The window square
Whitens and swallows its dull stars.''

This sibilance is the repetition of the letter 'S', which is used in three different words in the ending of stanza five, and opening of stanza six. It could be said that Plath has used this sibilance to express how the morning has broke in the poem, and that in fact the difference of sibilance being used their is also a difference in the relationship between the mother and the new born baby.

  This change is the relationship is expressed by Plath, as the poem comes to an end. Of which, a metaphor is used in order to express how the mother is beginning to change her views.

''Your handful of notes;''

The metaphor here is used to express how the baby does indeed have a handful of notes, because of how small and delicate it is. The mother has realized how the baby is beginning to try to cry, yet the mother no longer see's this a cry but in fact as if the baby is singing. This imagery of the notes being sung by the baby, is a huge contrast of the 'bald cry', of which the baby's cry was first described as.

  As we are able to see the relationship change, Plath uses personification to finish the poem on a good term of the relationship between the mother and baby.

''The clear vowels rise like balloons.''

This clear change in the relationship is showed as the mother has changed her mind about the baby, as she now knows how the take care of such a small precious thing as before she was shocked and nervous of what she had created. Yet, is it as if the mother has just seen the beauty because of this little morning song that the baby has 'sung' for her through the baby crying and making noises. This stanza expressed the morning, of which the whole stanza reflects on the title and explains to the audience why such a title was used for such a poem.