Poetic Devises Used to Portray the Maternal Feelings in the Poem 'Morning Song' by Sylvia Plath

Abstract

Maternal feelings are universal and often they are considered to be unique and a blessing across almost all cultures of world. However, according to researchers, women express happiness, frustration and stress variably when they become mothers, a major life changing event in their life, depending on the available external factors as well as the internal self-possessed factors of the mothers themselves. As such, the poem “Morning song” written by Silvia Plath explores the confused maternal feelings of a female speaker towards her new born baby. This research article analyses how poetic devises are used to show the confused maternal feelings in the poem. Selected lines were taken as the samples for the study and using descriptive and argumentative research methods, the researcher arrived at a conclusion. According to the findings, the study reveals that the confused image of motherhood which has been created through various descriptions in the poem as the author pictures the first time mothers’ feelings and experiences through a female persona. However, it is understood that the mother’s genuine feelings have been portrayed in the poem heavily with autobiographical elements as those maternal feelings do not occur automatically as they are learnt or in other words acquired over the time by the baby’s mother. As such, the poem does not portray an unconventional image. Instead, it portrays a genuine and true feelings of a mother. Thus, this research will be a contribution for further studies to find out the extended external factors which had been contributed for the subject in the poem.