Comparing Plath's View on Motherhood with You're and 'Morning Song

Comparing Plath's View on Motherhood with You're and 'Morning Song

In Plath's poetry she is very depressed about her life but when you

look at the poems, 'You're' and 'Morning Song' you get a new view on

her life. These poems are about her opinion and feelings on motherhood

and are her only positive poems that we have studied so far. Morning

song is when Plath writes about her new baby daughter and how she

feels towards her and 'you're', is a celebratory poem about

approaching motherhood.

Sylvia Plath wrote 'Morning song' after the birth of her first

daughter. The poem is different from the cheerful poem 'you're'

although she still talks about the good parts of pregnancy. In

'morning song' Plath starts off very positive about motherhood. Plath

describes her baby as precious and if it is worth a lot to her, 'love

set you going like a fat gold watch.' I think she does this because it

is her first baby and she wants to protect her. Also the use of 'fat'

and 'gold' emphasises how much the baby is worth and how precious it

is to her.

Even though the poem is positive to start with it quickly moves into a

state of jealousy, 'I'm no longer your mother.' Here Plath accepts

that the baby has all the attention now the baby is born, whereas when

she was pregnant Plath was getting used to the idea of her getting all

the attention and people caring for her.

Plath is very happy about her daughter's birth and is rejoicing that

she has entered the world but the people surrounding her are "staring

round blankly at walls" This is negative as Plath wants everyone to be

happy about the birth of her new daughter.

In the fourth stanza I get the impression that Plath's life depends on

this baby. All she can do is 'awake to listen' for the 'moth breath'

of her baby. She lays awake, straining to hear the breath of her baby,

if she can hear it then she'll be able to sleep knowing that her baby