” Morning Song”, by Sylvia Plath.

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David Burrell English 9 Mr. Kenrick 19 march 2012 The Poem I selected is” Morning Song”, by Sylvia Plath. I selected three quotes: 1. “ The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry took its place among the elements” 2. “One cry and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral in my Victorian nightgown.” 3. “And now you try your handful of notes;” The literal meaning of the first quote, “The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry/took its place among the elements” (Plath 2-3lns.), is that a woman’s new born baby is slapped on its feet by a midwife. Doctors slap babies on their feet or on their bottoms to make them cry and make sure they are alive. The words …” and your bald cry took its place among the elements “, means that the baby is bald when it was born. The image that is created by this quote is of a new born baby being delivered. The bald baby cries when the midwife slaps the baby’s feet. The image of the words…”took its place among the elements” is the image of becoming part of the human race and part of the universe. The figurative meaning of this quote is that once the baby cries, it is part of the universe and can fit in with other elements of the universe. The punctuation causes a pause which means that the tone is slow. Since the woman is speaking about her new born child, and since she just delivered her child, the pace is slow, and the tone is about love for her new baby. The literal meaning of the second quote, “One cry and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral in my/Victorian nightgown.” (Plath 13-14lns.), is that the woman was awakened by the baby’s cry. The woman is sleepy, but she stumbles from her bed to check on the baby. The words, “cow-heavy” literally mean as heavy as a cow, and the floral means like flowers. The image this quote creates is one where the woman is suddenly awakened by one cry. As

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