1. Sylvia Plath - Child Date:
Objectives:
Introduce and annotate the poem
Explore the themes of motherhood, love, hope and displacement.

2. Warm-up: the skill of putting yourself in other’s positions.
Child Date:
Warm-up: the skill of putting yourself in other’s positions.
Imagine you are the parent of a new-born baby. What hopes and dreams do you think you would have? Write 2-3 bulletpoints.

3. Why we study her:
Sylvia Plath ( ) suffered from clinical depression for most of her adult life and after multiple attempts, she committed suicide through poisoning. Her poetry is important to read because of how intense or extreme her search for meaning is. Plath’s desperate and dramatic approaches reveal ways for the reader to examine the world.

4. Note this down - You’re asked to know what the poem is about
Note this down - You’re asked to know what the poem is about. Knowing the background is important.
Sylvia Plath - Born in Boston 1932.
Father died in 1940 – had a prolonged effect on her.
Artistic prodigy who published her first poem at nine years old.
Married Ted Hughes (English poet) in 1956 and had two kids. He had an affair and left her.
She suffered from clinical depression and took her own life through poisoning (head in oven) in 1963.

5. Context before reading the poem
The poem was written just after the poet’s son’s first birthday and less than two weeks before her suicide.
She writes about the hopes and dreams of her child and about her own feeling about motherhood.

6. Let’s read – Child
Your clear eye is the one absolutely beautiful thing.
I want to fill it with color and ducks,
The zoo of the new
Whose names you meditate ---
April snowdrop, Indian pipe,
Little
Stalk without wrinkle,
Pool in which images
Should be grand and classical
Not this troublous
Wringing of hands, this dark
Ceiling without a star.  

7. Note this down:
Form
A short, straightforward and even playful poem. It is as if the speaker is talking to her child.
2 sentences. The speaker gets carried away with what she wants the child to see.
Unrhymed tercets (3 lines) – simplicity/innocent.

8. Note this down: Stanza one Opening line – pure love and adoration.
Clear – pure, untainted and full of innocence.
Wants the child to only see beauty – love of nature.
Strong sense of potential.

9. Note this down: Stanza two
Poet imagines child will become fascinated by the names of things in the natural world.
Snowdrops – represent birth, innocence and purity.
Indian Pipe – feeds on rotting matter of other plants. Unusual plant but with amusing name.

10. Note this down: Stanza three
Poet wishes the child to see only beauty and culture.
‘grand and classical’ – more grown-up.
Hope for young child and adult they will become.

11. Note this down: Stanza four
The speaker/poet describe themselves in negative ways. Does not wish her child to see her.
Believes her presence will only bring darkness and hopelessness.
Might be better off without her.

12. Note this down: Final note
This is a poem about celebrating the child while the mother considers herself an obstacle to the child’s happiness.
The speaker loves the child but not herself.

13. Questions on back of page
Complete questions for homework.
Cooldown - finish the following sentences.
I think......
I know
I want to know