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to a reader, but shock turns to wonder and admiration by the imagery that follows in the next line. The cloud-comparison illustrates so beautifully the cycle of life and death and a mother's part in it.

In the fourth stanza it is night and the room is still and filled with pink roses, whose smell would attract small insects. The focus is again on breathing. Not on the first breath of the first stanza, but on the baby-girl's "moth-breath". As mothers do, the "I" wakes up and checks if she hears her baby breath and hears "A far sea " and all seems well.

But the next stanza opens with "One cry" and describes how the mother hurriedly stumbles out of bed in her floral, old-fashioned nightdress. Again images of nature are used. This time the "cow-heavy" not only illustrates the mother's clumsiness, but also calls forth images of breasts filled with milk. The cry of the baby is thus linked to the next line, with its image of an open mouth and a baby blinking sleepily while hungry for milk.

The last few words of this fifth stanza run on in the last stanza and describe dawn. "The window square Whitens and swallows its dull stars". Morning has arrived and the baby cries. " you try Your handful of notes; The clear vowels rise like balloons." And this last line explains the title of the poem. Sylvia compares the early morning cry of her daughter with a song, a "Morning Song".

The poem is so compact and beautifully crafted that a short discussion does no right to its richness and use of adjectives, nouns and imagery. Each stanza is a gem in itself, but is also linked to the rest of the poem by use of recurring words or images. One example is the focus on air throughout the poem by words like breath, breathing, cloud, wind and its link to life. A first reading will give a general impression and will undoubtedly leave a reader satisfied. However, one may need several readings to become fully aware of the beauty, richness, and depth of what seems a simple poem celebrating the start of a new life.

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