Diction in Sylvia Plaths "morning Song"

Diction in Sylvia Plath's "Morning Song"

Morning Song, by Sylvia Plath, explains the physical and emotional ties between a mother and her child, as well as Plath's own growing maternal bond with her newborn child. In this poem, Plath is contemplating her relationship with her newborn child and it is clear she has mixed emotions of apprehension and awe for the newborn. This child has changed her life and it is very evident in her choice of words from nature to describe the beauty of both having a child and being a mother.

Her choice of diction is remarkably entertaining as she mixed my emotions to fit her own feelings of doubt and joy with words of nature. The first stanza in Sylvia Plath's, "Morning Song" begins with the word "Love" (1). The word love is a good idea as to what the poem will be about. It is the birth of Sylvia's child and the very common feeling that new mothers experience as a result of maternity. The word, love, is the reason that the baby is coming into the world. It is a consequence of what Sylvia earlier did, she made love. Although the Plath makes no mention of the father to this child, it is my understanding that he may very well be present. The lack of involvement by the father and her feeling about love is her inspiration in this poem.

This coming, the sense of movement of the action, is compared with that of a watch, as something that starts working at a certain point. In the life of a person this certain point would be the moment of time in which they were born. The watch is gold (1), which gives me an idea of the importance of the concept compared to it, and in Plath's case it is the newborn baby. The word fat (1), referring to this watch, tells me what the baby's shape looks like, being that babies are often chubby and rounded in their shape when they are born. In the second verse Plath tells the moment the midwife slaps the foot-soles of the baby, when babies are born, the midwifes or the doctors that help in the childbirths usually snap the baby's buttocks or, in this case, the foot-soles to help them breath as they start crying. In this poem, this crying is described as bald, this is interpreted as the moment that the new person has come into the world. This idea is described as "took its place among the elements" in the poem (3). These natural elements are interpreted as those that compose the world. This is a very important part of the poem in my opinion. It transitions the moments in having the child to the moment when the child first starts its new life. Just like a new fat gold watch would when it first starts working after you put a battery in it. This is definitely the turning point in Plath's poem.

The second stanza in Plath's poem describes how the arrival of this newborn baby has been warmly welcomed. The first verse talks about the echoes of the voices of the parents magnifying this new babies arrival, these words give idea of the happiness brought to the people in the hospital by the birth. These people may be family, friends, the nurses or even the father of the baby, who is probably standing at a distant, scared and nervous for what to come next. The child is described as "new statue in a drafty museum" (4-5), its nakedness is compared to a statue, and I when reading this poem easily evoked this image. The naked body of a baby is so delicate and soft, is comparable with the perfection of the statues chiseled and sculpted by crafty and gifted sculptors. These types of sculptures are often found in an old "drafty" (5) museum, which usually has a particular cleanliness and cold mothball smell. This image of the delicate baby is the cause of her worries and the end of the safety felt before the newborn's arrival. So Sylvia says, they stand as "blankly walls" (6), just standing and staring at the baby, expectant.

The third stanza begins comparing Sylvia's motherhood with the breaking of the clouds in rain. The rain is stated as a mirror, which reflects the disappearing of the clouds themselves; extinction made by the action of raining and the blow of the wind. This expression may convey the idea of motherhood not as a condition of possession by the mother, because the baby belongs to the world, to itself, to the elements, which surround its life in the world, the people, the land, nature and even God. Not necessarily just possessed by its mother. The imagery and diction now makes me believe that this child was brought into this world with a purpose. It wasn't just the outcome of Plath's love but may have been brought into the world by God to change the life of Plath. Just like they say today: "Having

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