Morning Song (Leaving Cert English): Revision Notes

Morning Song

Introduction to the poem

"Morning Song" presents a deeply personal exploration of early motherhood that challenges traditional expectations about instant maternal bonding. Rather than depicting a mother who immediately feels overwhelming love for her newborn, Plath creates a speaker who initially views her baby almost like an object or artwork. This honest portrayal captures the gradual process many new mothers experience as they adjust to their transformed identity and slowly develop deeper emotional connections with their children.

The poem's strength lies in its psychological realism, using concrete imagery and simple yet powerful metaphors to trace the speaker's journey from detachment towards growing tenderness and intimacy with her baby.

Key excerpts from "Morning song"

Opening stanza:

"Love set you going like a fat gold watch. The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry Took its place among the elements."

Development of maternal feelings:

"I'm no more your mother Than the cloud that distils a mirror to reflect its own slow Effacement at the wind's hand."

Growing connection:

"One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral ...The clear vowels rise like balloons."

Themes in "Morning song"

Maternal awe and ambivalence

The poem's central theme explores the complex, often contradictory emotions that accompany new motherhood. Plath presents a speaker experiencing both wonder and disconnection, revealing the psychological reality that maternal bonds don't always form instantly.

The speaker demonstrates her conflicted state through the language she uses to describe her baby. While she acknowledges the child's value by calling the watch "gold," suggesting preciousness, she simultaneously maintains emotional distance through comparisons to inanimate objects. The baby becomes a "fat gold watch" and later a "statue" - descriptions that emphasise the child's existence as something to be observed rather than intimately connected with.

This detachment reflects the speaker's struggle to reconcile her new identity as a mother with her previous sense of self. The metaphor "I'm no more your mother / Than the cloud that distils a mirror" captures her feeling of unreality about this fundamental relationship. The cloud imagery suggests something insubstantial and constantly changing, reflecting her uncertainty about her maternal role.

However, the poem also reveals the speaker's underlying devotion despite her apparent disconnection. She listens carefully to her baby's breathing throughout the night, responds immediately when the child cries, and gradually begins using warmer imagery like "moth-breath" and "flat pink roses" to describe the baby. This progression demonstrates how maternal feelings can develop slowly and naturally rather than appearing instantly.

Detailed analysis by stanzas

First and second stanzas

The opening lines establish the poem's unique approach to describing birth and early parenthood. The unusual comparison "Love set you going like a fat gold watch" immediately signals that this won't be a conventional celebration of new life. Instead of using typical imagery associated with babies (sweetness, innocence, joy), Plath chooses mechanical and artistic metaphors.

The watch metaphor proves particularly effective because it connects to the poem's underlying concern with time - both the timing of birth and the time needed for maternal feelings to develop fully. The adjective "fat" captures the healthy, robust appearance that indicates a successful birth, while "gold" suggests something valuable and precious, hinting at the deeper love that exists beneath the speaker's current emotional distance.

The birth scene itself combines realistic medical details ("The midwife slapped your footsoles") with more abstract imagery ("your bald cry / Took its place among the elements"). This mixing of concrete and abstract language reflects the speaker's attempt to process the overwhelming experience of birth. The baby's cry joining "the elements" suggests both the naturalness of birth and the child's immediate place in the larger world beyond the mother's control.

The phrase "In a draughty museum, your nakedness / Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls" creates a powerful image of emotional numbness and disconnection. The museum setting emphasises the sense of observing something precious but untouchable, while the adults standing "blankly as walls" suggests their shock and inability to respond with immediate warmth or intimacy.

Third and fourth stanzas

The declaration "I'm no more your mother" marks a crucial moment in the poem where the speaker directly addresses her feelings of disconnection. This honest admission challenges social expectations about instant maternal bonding and reveals the psychological complexity of adjusting to motherhood.

The cloud metaphor that follows expresses the speaker's sense of impermanence and distance from her new role. Like a cloud that creates only a temporary reflexion before dissolving, she feels unable to maintain a stable sense of herself as a mother. This imagery captures the disorienting experience of identity transformation that often accompanies major life changes.

However, subtle shifts in the language begin to suggest developing maternal awareness. The reference to the baby's "moth-breath" introduces softer, more intimate imagery than the mechanical "watch" or static "statue" from earlier stanzas. Though moths might seem fragile or even potentially destructive, the image suggests something living and delicate that requires careful attention.

The "flat pink roses" imagery marks another small but significant step towards warmer feelings. While these roses are described as "flat," suggesting they're not yet fully bloomed, the pink colour traditionally associated with tenderness and new life indicates that maternal emotions are beginning to emerge, even if gradually and tentatively.

Fifth and sixth stanzas

These final stanzas show the most dramatic development in the speaker's relationship with her child. The line "One cry, and I stumble from bed" demonstrates immediate physical response to her baby's needs, showing that despite her emotional uncertainty, she's fully committed to the practical aspects of mothering.

The description of herself as "cow-heavy and floral" creates a striking contrast that captures the dual nature of her experience. "Cow-heavy" suggests the physical burden and earthiness of new motherhood - the weight of milk-filled breasts, exhaustion, and bodily changes. Yet "floral" introduces imagery of blooming and beauty, suggesting that something lovely is emerging from this physically demanding experience.

The baby's evolution in the speaker's perception becomes particularly significant here. No longer described as inanimate objects like watches or statues, the child becomes "a cat" - still not fully human in the mother's mind, but importantly, something alive and capable of independent action. This represents crucial progress in the speaker's ability to see her child as a living being rather than an object.

The poem's final image of "clear vowels rise like balloons" provides the most hopeful and beautiful metaphor in the entire piece. The baby's sounds transform from the harsh "bald cry" of birth into musical "clear vowels," suggesting the beginning of communication and language development. The balloon imagery conveys lightness, joy, and upward movement - a marked contrast to the heavy, static imagery that dominated earlier stanzas.

This progression from mechanical sounds to musical ones parallels the mother's emotional journey from detachment towards connection. The "balloons" suggest that both the child's development and the mother's growing love have the potential to lift them both into new realms of relationship and understanding.

Remember!