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natural, earthy act that is greater than her. She IS the mother but she is a player in the larger action. It is humility about this section.
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All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.
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This descriptive passage starts with how soft the breath of the baby is and goes to describe the wallpaper! Pink rosesI think girl! Mother instincts kick in; she wakes before the baby actually cries. The baby is the far sea! The start of the cry.

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One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown
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Beautiful wording!
With one cry, she leaves the warmth of her bed. She is "Cow-heavy"~ her breasts are full of milk and she is dressed in a floral Victorian styled gown! This is one of my favorite lines because she tells you she is breast feeding the baby and how she looks as she springs from bed in the morning!
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Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square
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The baby's mouth is clean, no drool. Mothers know that special way a baby's mouth opens and the little tongue darts forward and back, a sign of hunger. The baby's bedroom window is the "window square"this is an interesting break she chooses because only in the next sentence is her full phrases complete.
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Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Here she tells you that the morning light is breaking through the baby's window. The stars are fading in the morning's light. Sunshine peeks.
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Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.
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Here, the full concept is explained and understood. Her morning song IS the baby waking in the morning. At dawn! The baby's cries are clear and "vowels" are "Aaaaaaaa!", or "Ohhhhhh"typical baby cries which fill the air!
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This beautiful poem is almost a riddle. Some I have known have read this work and NOT known what her morning song was! It is the baby. This piece can be understood by it's simplicity of what it is like to have an infant.

I truly believe this work is one of Sylvia Plath's most touching and often overlooked by the many works she has which are more complicated.

The Morning Song is a mother, waking to feed her baby.
Simple, tender and sweet.

Learn more about this author, J.R. Lewis.
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