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Transcript

You're - Sylvia Plath

Plath is imagining the position of the fetus within her

Masking her true expression and how she views the baby

The moon is white, a color that represents purity & innocence like the baby

Undeveloped and surrounded by water - dehumanizes the unborn child

Night = darkness & mysteriousness

Clownlike, happiest on your hands,

Feet to the stars, and moon-skulled,

Gilled like a fish. A common-sense

Thumbs-down on the dodo’s mode.

Wrapped up in yourself like a spool,

Trawling your dark as owls do.

Mute as a turnip from the Fourth

Of July to All Fools’ Day,

O high-riser, my little loaf.

Form

  • Two stanzas may represent the two children Plath wishes to have
  • Two Stanzas with nine lines in each stanza whereby each line represents one month in her pregnancy

juxtaposes life with death & extinction

She is waiting for the baby to arrive

Simile to emphasize how she's not familiar with her child

End focus of the stanza is positive and the last line is the turning point/volta of the poem

fresh minded & ready - 'baby in the oven'

Unable to speak - ambiguous - out of joy or out of fear?

Linguistic Devices

Assonance - portrays the baby’s movement compared to eels

Simile for the baby's movement

Enjambment - literary technique whereby lines usually do not have a punctuation mark at the end so it is almost like a running thought

Similes - figure of speech that compares two things that are alike in some way

Metaphor - figure of speech which makes an implied or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated

Sprat is a very small fish representing how small the baby is - this might scare her

After expressing the anxiety of such an overwhelming burden such as motherhood, she finally resolves, becoming more neutral

Comparisons

Themes

Morning Song - Motherhood & Beginning and Endings

Lesbos - Patriarchy & Motherhood

Tulips - Motherhood

Emily Bronte - Motherhood & Femininity

  • Motherhood & Family - being a single child from an upper middle class family, Plath may find her new role daunting
  • Patriarchy - Plath objects to women being oppressed to dedicate themselves to their homes and families
  • Beginning & Endings - giving birth to this child will mean a part of her identity will be be changed

Overview

enjambment

  • You’re expresses the uncertainty within the relationship between Plath and her unborn child
  • The speaker recalls her ambivalent yet joyful experiences her pregnancy
  • Using personal experience, Plath is able to describe this encounter vividly, including the emotions and physical feelings that are present

Vague as fog and looked for like mail.

Farther off than Australia.

Bent-backed Atlas, our traveled prawn.

Snug as a bud and at home

Like a sprat in a pickle jug.

A creel of eels, all ripples.

Jumpy as a Mexican bean.

Right, like a well-done sum.

A clean slate, with your own face on

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