morning song (plath)

Question 1

isn’t filled with same lvl of despair and anguish like rest of poems

Answer 1

•juxtaposition of emotion through poem is created & further highlighted by intense imagery

Question 2

first word is “love”

Answer 2

•sets tone as young mother responds to her newborns cry, still unsure of her role

Question 3

how does plath use the powerful metaphor of this “love” setting a “fat gold watch”

Answer 3

•to convey intensity of experience of birth of her child, and to suggest how precious this baby is

Question 4

uses metaphor of watch to what

Answer 4

•emphasize the importance of her child, but also her fear of the passage of time, a theme common to her poems

Question 5

despite this, first stanza remains hopeful, what does this serve to do

Answer 5

•accentuate the intense feelings id insecurity and helplessness in the next two stanzas

Question 6

powerful imagery that the baby “shadows (their) safety” highlights whag

Answer 6

•the uneasiness and vulnerability of plath herself

Question 7

her feelings of inadequacy and uncertainty are explored by

Answer 7

•she describes “(standing) round blankly as walls”, unsure and confused about the world of motherhood
•she worried about her baby and fears the loss of their time together

Question 8

this image seems at first cold and heartless, but is actually

Answer 8

•a realistic interpretation of plaths views on motherhood
•she talks about the complex relationship between a parent and child

Question 9

in the same way a mirror reflects the “effacement (of the cloud) at the winds hand,” so will the child…

Answer 9

•witness the parent growing old and dying
•this provocative imagery along with Plaths deceleration “I’m no more your mother’ highlights Plaths apprehension & inability to feel a bond with her child

Question 10

final image is optimistic, ends in note of celebration conveying her hope for child’s future

Answer 10

•as the “clear vowels” of her child’s “morning song” “rise like ballons”
•the simile, images of the child’s voice rising into the sky like balloons conveys the intense feelings of joy and optimism that ends the poem

Question 11

description of world as a

Answer 11

•”drafty museum” and new babies as naked statues is a very unusual image, one that makes the reader think

Question 12

it’s an image she’s used before

Answer 12

•it suggests a world that has held onto its past, storing events, people, not a very comfortable place, but perhaps not unsafe for the “New statue”

Question 13

imagery is effective in

Answer 13

•contracting the infants lightness & delicacy and the mothers clumsiness and heaviness :
•the baby’s “moth-breath / Flickers” (notice the lightness of the sound as well as the delicacy of the image), her “clear vowels rise like balloons”

Question 14

the mother is portrayed as

Answer 14

•homely and a little clumsy, she stumbles “cow-heavy”, swathed in a “floral… Victorian nightgown”

Question 15

imagery is central to the contrast between

Answer 15

•the first three stanzas and the last three

Question 16

there’s a concious development of animation

Answer 16

•watch, statue, walls, mirror and even cloud are inanimate objects, just things incapable of independent activity
•moth, cat, singer (child) and cow (mother) are living creatures, capable of acting alone

Question 17

seems to be a what in first stanza

Answer 17

•seems to be a placid acceptance
•the “bald cry / (Taking) its place among the elements”

Question 18

this changes in stanza 2

Answer 18

•the world is now cold -“a drafty museum”- and the adults seem dwarfed by the place

Question 19

their voices..

Answer 19

•their “voices echo”, they’re blank as walls and their safety is threatened
•maybe the baby’s “nakedness” makes them feel more vulnerable, or perhaps the new arrival reminds them that they’re now an older generation, facing death

Question 20

sense of unease becomes stronger in stanza 3

Answer 20

•speaker seems to feel that she has nothing to offer the infant: she’s mirrored in the child for a while before being slowly effaced by the passage of time

Question 21

these feelings of

Answer 21

•dislocation, unimportance and impermanence are quickly dispelled by the present moment, evoked vividly in stanza 4

Question 22

the baby’s gentle “moth-breath”,

Answer 22

•the rose patterned room and the watchful mother in her “Victorian” nightdress create a scene of warmth and intimacy

Question 23

remaining stanzas reflect

Answer 23

•the growing feeling of connectedness between the mother and child : one cry brings her to the child, whose mouth is wide open

Question 24

the dawn breaks to the

Answer 24

•baby’s clear “handful of notes”
•intimacy, love, joy and pleasure dominate these stanzas