Sylvia Plath Morning Song

This is a poem about the response of a mother to the birth of her child, Frieda. Rather than paint a rosy picture registering platitudinous (clichéd) joys and the miracle of childbirth, the poem presents us with a more complicated account of the different emotions that a mother can feel when a child enters the world. The first half of the poem is full of uncertainty and confusion. The speaker feels that her security is somehow threatened by the vulnerability that the child introduces into her world.

The speaker is also not sure what the appropriate response is to the event of the birth. Both she and the father are left feeling blank and confused. However, in the second half of the poem the speaker appears to have settled into her role of mother. The poem, therefore, seems to illustrate the insecurities ad fears that a birth can bring whilst also showing how these uncertainties can pass with time.

Stanza 1 It is significant that the first word in the poem is “Love”. It seems to be important, in a poem predominantly about uncertainty and insecurity, that the child is aware it was created out of love. The speaker is referring, we must imagine, to the act of love, the coupling of mother and father that set in motion the complex cycle of life. The analogy with the “fat gold watch” suggests the intricate complexity of life, yet it is a rather unsentimental and industrial image to use in the context.

The speaker states that an act of love kick-started a process of life much as the winding of a watch tautens the springs that will drive the mechanism of the hands for a period of time. That the watch is “fat” might reflect the pudginess of the baby, its ‘baby fat’. That it is “gold” highlights the value, the fact that the child is something to be treasured. But it is hard to establish the motivation behind what is a rather unusual description of a new-born baby.

‘Morning Song’ presents an interesting and complex response to the birth of a child. Avoiding sentimentality and traditional expressions of joy, the poem seeks to honestly portray the feelings that can accompany such a momentous event. The first stanza dispels any notions of magic surrounding the birth. It is an unceremonious event. The midwife delivers a blunt, but necessary, slap to the child’s feet. This draws the first ‘cry’ from the baby, registering its ‘place among the elements’. From the first stanza of the poem the child’s vulnerability is considered. Now that it is born it is but one part of an infinitely complex world. The word ‘elements’ can be taken to mean the weather, especially harsh weather. The child has taken its place in a world of wind and rain that holds no regard for any being.

Stanza 2 The second stanza describes the parents’ response to the moment. It is a troubled response, filled with uncertainty. Their “voices echo, magnifying” the occasion. We might consider this to mean that the mother and father each say the same thing, and in this regard their expressions “echo” each other. A distance is clearly apparent in the description of the child as a “New statue”. Once again the child is compared to an inanimate object, something coldly distant from the parents. Comparing the child to a statue suggest that the parents feel no maternal or paternal bond.

The birth of the child seems to have opened up the world around them The birth of the child seems to have opened up the world around them. Now that it has come to exist, an element of security they once felt has disappeared. A “drafty museum” is a place vulnerable to the “elements”. It seems that the arrival of a helpless child has also made the parents themselves more vulnerable. The notion that the child’s “nakedness”, its vulnerability, “shadows” their safety suggests that it casts a shadow over, or obscures, their security, so that they can no longer feel as safe as they once did.

Stanza 3 The third stanza expresses the speaker’s personal feeling of distance from the child. Now that the child is born she feels that the connection between her and the child is more tenuous than when the child lay in her womb. The child that she bears will ultimately mirror her own “effacement”. By this the poet seems to mean that the child will gradually watch her grow old and die. This, it seems, is the essence of the bond that now exists between mother and child. Now that she no longer carries the child within her womb the relationship has become something more negative.

Stanza 4 There is, however, an interesting shift in tone and focus in the second half of the poem. Time has advanced and we are out of the “drafty museum” and in to a more homely environment. Lying in bed at night the speaker describes the soothing sounds of the baby sleeping in a cot nearby. The images and metaphors have lost their coldness and seem more tender. The fragility of the child is evoked not as something that “shadows” the parents’ safety but as something tender and innocent. Phrases like “moth breath” and descriptions of “flat pink roses” suggest something entirely different to the coldly indifferent “elements” and “walls”.

Initial insecurities and uncertainties seem to have been replaced with a more relaxed and tempered appreciation of the circumstances. The speaker has established a routine and the child now occupies a comfortable place in her world. The speaker is now concerned with the immediate needs and welfare of the child rather than abstract notions of individuality and identity. In the fourth stanza the child is spoken of in tender terms for the first time in the poem. Its “bald cry” has softened to “moth breath” and the speaker seems to draw comfort from the sounds the child emits. Waking to listen to the child’s breathing, what she hears reminds her of the tranquil stirrings of a distant sea.

But this is a young child and, as such, tranquillity can only be temporary. “One cry” and the mother “stumbles” from her bed to tend to the child’s needs. In contrast with the uncertain description of the relationship in the third stanza here we are given a rather colourful description of the practical bond that now ties them together. The speaker describes herself as ‘cow-heavy’, a rather humorous illustration of her new role. Continuing the tone of self-depreciation she mentions her “floral” “Victorian nightgown”. There is nothing glamorous about being a mother but the speaker appears to have finally reconciled herself to the task.

The reference to animals in the fifth stanza seems to highlight the practical maternal rite, something essential and fundamental to nature The description of the child’s mouth opening “clean as a cat’s” is rather clinical. Though at least a cat is a more animate comparison than a ‘statue’.

Ending The poem ends with a description of the morning light flooding in through the window, eliminating the stars and the darkness of the night. It seems a positive ending to the poem. But we cannot be sure that the insecurities regarding the relationship have entirely vanished. Perhaps, much like the stars, they are only gone momentarily. Still, the last few lines at least suggest an optimism and a greater self-assurance regarding motherhood. When the child has finished feeding it makes a few sounds of which it is capable. The description of the “notes” rising like balloons contrasts effectively with the heavy, sombre comparisons made in the first two stanzas. When she can forget herself the speaker is capable of registering and appreciating the beautiful innocence of the child before her.