In the poem “Morning Song” what feelings does the narrator feel about the birth of her child, and how does she present it?
The narrator in the poem uses metaphors, lack of structure and language to portray her feeling about the birth of her baby. She clearly experiences an uncomfortable relationship with her child at the start of the poem, but towards the end of the poem, her relationship clearly changes.
The narrator appears to feel a lack of love between her and the bay, this idea is presented through the narrator’s use of metaphors. During the first stanza, the narrator describes the baby as a “fat gold watch”, a strange comparison considering the watch is a ‘lifeless’ object unlike the baby, it clearly suggests that there is missing bond between the mother and baby. What is particularly interesting to note is the use of the adjective, “gold”, which portrays the baby as a novelty, rather than an object to be loved. This idea is supported throughout the poem when the writer compared the baby to a “statue”, again an object viewed by humans, not loved. Whilst one can argue this is just a simple use of metaphors, not to be taken literally, it can equally be argued that there is a definite lack of bond between the narrator and her baby which leads to an uncomfortable relationship.
