Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath

Morning Song
1. Plath has many doubts and worries about being a mother
  1. "your nakedness / Shadows our safety"
2. Throughout the poem she gains confidence and developes motherly insitincts (natural)
3. Poem follows the mother's journey from her initial disorientation to her joyful acceptance of her baby girl.
  1. "moth breath/ Flickers among the flat pink roses"
4. It is a celebration of her birth at the end. Uplifting + positive.
  1. "The clear vowels rise like balloons"
5. She feels detatched from her baby (cloud + puddle)
  1. In creating the puddle the cloud destroys itself. The destruction is reflected in the pool of water. Plath is concerned that her daughter's life will reflect her own life.
    1. "than the cloud that distils a mirror"
6. 'Morning' is the beginning of something. 'Song' is a cheerful and celebratory thing.
  1. "love set you going like a fat gold watch"
Mirror
1. Plath personifies the mirror.
  1. "She rewards me with tears"
  2. "The eye of a little god"
2. It is a very personal poem. Plath is the woman looking into the mirror.
  1. "I am silver and exact"
3. Plath views aging as a terrible thing. We can see her struggle with her indentity.
  1. "like a terrible fish"
4. The mirror is percieved as powerful, monsterous, arogant but faithful to the poet. The mirror does not lie to her.
  1. "Whatever I see I swallow immediately"
  2. "no preconceptions"
  3. "drowned"
5. Plath shows possible trust issues with her family and friends. It is as if the mirror is the only person she can trust (which is herself).
  1. "liars, the candles or the moon"
The Arrival of the Bee Box
1. Plath explores order, power, control, confinement and freedom in this deeply personal poem. Use of 'I'.
  1. "The box is only temporary"
  2. "In my moon suit and funeral veil"
2. She is the owner of the bees, she has control over their lives. Her father had been a bee expert.
  1. "I am the owner"
3. Nightmare world, disturbing and unusual sense of entrapment.
  1. "the coffin of a midget or a square baby"
4. Uses Romans to describe the bees. They speak Latin and she could be 'Ceasar'.
  1. "I lay my ear to furious Latin"
  2. "I am not a Ceasar."
5. Is she afraid of responsibility? Or is it her motherly instinct?
Child
Black Rook in Rainy Weather
1. "To set the sight on fire / In my eye"
2. "Out of kitchen table or chair"
3. A brief respite from fear / Of total neutrality"
4. "Trekking stubborn through this season / Of fatigue"
5. "The long wait for the angel / For that rare, random decent"

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	Created by joannefinnegan19 over 8 years ago