What features of song do you get in “Morning Song?”

Answer

What features of song do you get in “Morning Song?” [NU: 2015, 18, 20] ★★★

Sylvia Plath’s (1932-1963) “Morning Song” (1961) is a poem about the birth of her child and her first experience of motherhood. The title itself suggests a song. Throughout the poem, Plath uses different features of song to show the baby’s cries and sounds.

Baby’s Cry as a Song: At the beginning, Plath describes the baby’s first cry. The baby cries when the midwife slaps the bottoms of the baby’s feet. Plath compares the baby’s cry to a sound that enters the world like a new element. She writes:

“…Bald cry

Took its place among the elements.”

Echo: Plath says the parents’ voices echo. Here, “echo” is an auditory image that stirs our sense of hearing like a song. It is like a song that welcomes the arrival of the baby.

Baby’s Breath: Later, Plath compares the baby’s breathing to soft music. She calls it “moth-breath.” Then she compares the baby’s breath to the sound of “a far sea” in her ear. All these auditory images stir our sense of hearing, like a song.

Baby’s Vowel Sounds: In the final stanza, Plath describes the baby’s vowel sounds. The baby tries its “handful of notes” as if the baby is an untrained singer. Plath writes:

“Your handful of notes;

The clear vowels rise like balloons.”

She compares the baby’s vowel sounds to musical notes that rise like music in the air.

Musical Quality of the Poem: Though the poem has no rhyme scheme, we find assonance. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words. It adds musical flow to the poem. For example:

“Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s.”

Here, the “a” sound in “as” and  “cat’s” and the long “o” sound in “mouth” and “opens” create musical flow.