A strong negative second stanza shows the insecurities of the new parents. The short staccato like sentence shows Plath comparing the baby metaphorically to a “new statue”, illustrating that the parents do not see the baby as a soft cuddly object but rather as a harsh lifeless image, an inert objet like a “gold watch”, which casts shadows over the families future, “your nakedness shadows our safety”. The family is so threatened by the baby’s arrival that Plath uses an extremely strong simile which explains that the family suffers from inaction, “we stand around blankly as walls”, showing that the parents do not know how to respond to their new arrival.
The idea that the baby is foreign and strange to the mother is especially evident in stanza three. The mother, in contrasting herself to her baby, observes herself like a “cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow / Effacement at the wind's hand”. The child must serve as her mirror - but rather than accomplishing a type of immortality it is the mother's “slow effacement” and demise that the child reflects. The baby may look like the mother, but its individuality in the end forces it from the mother just as the wind pushes the cloud beyond the lake. Like the reflection from the cloud, the mother does not feel like a true concept of a mother, she feels she is the reflection of only the real thing.
However at the beginning of stanza four the tone of the speaker changes, a sense of caring and delicacy is introduced. It is here where the imagery now softens “moth breath” – the first comparison the speaker makes of baby to a living creature, but it still only “flickers amongst the flat pink roses”. And through the fricative sounds “flicking” that Plath uses, the speaker is able to depict the mother’s changing attitude, providing an unvoiced friction within the mother. This is also evident by the short sentence “I wake to listen”. The mother is showing care for the child and listens so intently that she thinks she can even hear a “far sea” in her ear. The child's tiny breaths comes across the mother's mind like a huge isolated sea.
This emphasises the ambiguity of the newborn as well as the familiarity she and her child have with each other as it further portrays the lack of understanding the mother has for her child through the misunderstand and unfamiliarity in their relationship. The child is both distant like a “far sea” yet close up like “flat pink roses”. Moreover the use of the word ‘sea’ connotes not only vastness, but over a possible sense of uncertainty and treachery, in an effort to parallel the emotions of the speaker as she comes to terms with an introduction to a new member in her life.
As the poem progresses a stark contrast however appears - the action of the poem increases when the mother attends the baby’s cries. It is here where Plath contrasts between the fourth and fifth stanza by now describing the mother as “cow-heavy and floral” instead of the delicate descriptions “flat pink roses” the reader is used to. The poem further progresses by revealing the dim and negative view the mother has towards herself “cow-heavy and floral in my Victorian night gown”, alluding that she is clumsy, over-weight mother. The simile “clean as a cats” is an unattractive image of the babies open mouth, because of the suggested aggression it is implying. This adds more ambiguous tone to the mother’s attitude towards her baby and serves to further reinforce the negative self-image the mother has of herself.
It is interesting to note that the poem is structured in a manner that reflects the thought process of the persona. For, initially the baby is likened to a lifeless “new statue”, but towards the end of the poem is contrasted to a cat; a little more live but not quite yet human.
Through techniques such as enjambment between stanza five and six, Plath is further able to portray a colourful positive description of the baby’s morning song, with the mother now hearing the baby’s morning song “rise like balloons”. This is further emphasised by the alliteration “window … whitens” showing that the mother has been awake all night, as she struggles to grapple with her conscience and feelings in regards to her new child. But when balloons rise you cannot grasp them.
And so, the final two stanzas confirm the ambivalent feelings the mother has towards their child as she feel the need to act in a maternal manner, but yet does not view the child in a positive and lovable manner. This indicates that the mother still does not have clear understandings of her relationship with her newborn child.
“Morning Song” by Silva Plath explores the thought process of a mother's search to strengthen her bond with her infant after a feeling of loss of connection after giving birth to it. Whilst trying to portray that she has an ambiguous association to this new life, the connection becomes more positive as the poem progresses and the baby relates to her with it’s “clear vowels”. The “handful of notes” that the baby can make is all that is necessary to scatter all feelings of apathy towards the newborn. As the baby’s cry “rise like balloons” the reader comes to understand that the child’s morning song is ‘clear’ but at the same time vulnerable.
WORD COUNT: 1136 WORDS
