Sylvia Plath: “Child” notes

● Reader feels sympathy for Plath... what else? Concern, angst, fear? She is presented
here as an unhappy mother, unhappy because she cannot create the world she
imagines for her child. She is in a confused state following the birth of her child.
● The child is “one absolutely beautiful thing” in her world which is “dark” and
depressed. She desperately wants to provide a world of colour*, fun and vitality for
her child.
● The metaphor of “The zoo of the new” is so rich with meaning; a world of variety,
learning and newness. She uses a playful, childlike language in the life she envisages
for her child. It is a gesture towards a new future.
● Alliteration “w” in stanza three – “without wrinkle” captures the smoothness and
clarity of newborn skin and juxtaposes the lone “wringing of hands” in the final
stanza which captures the poet’s sense of bewilderment.
● Assonance [repetition of vowels]: ‘colour and ducks, the zoo of the new’.
Note the ‘u’ sound repeated four times here: the ‘ou’ in ‘colour’, the ‘u’ in ‘ducks’,
the ‘oo’ in ‘zoo’ and the ‘ew’ of ‘new’. This musical touch gestures towards a nursery
rhyme effect/ the cooing of a baby.
● The repetition of broad vowel sounds in the final stanza signifies a shift in Plath’s use
of assonance – “troublous”, “dark”, “star” – which creates a gloomy atmosphere.
● Tercets (3 line stanzas) are linked together by a series of run-on lines. This use of
enjambment allows Plath to create a soothing, gentle and almost “rockabye”
momentum. This quick-paced rhythm can too be allied with the poet’s personal plea
to the child (conversational quality).
● Nature/Natural references - Flowers: white, innocent, delicate. Pool: naturally
reflecting positive, exuberant images of the child’s fulfilled life.
● The metaphor of the pool, here, can be linked to the mirror in “Mirror”. The natural
pool allows for positive and prosperous images to be reflected, however the inanimate
mirror only reflects negative images of old age and impending death.
● The poem begins with a flourish, a fanfare, however ends on an awfully haunting
image of “a dark ceiling without a star”. This image evokes a depiction of the child
lying in his crib and staring at a dull and lifeless ceiling. There is no musical-mobile
lulling him to sleep or glowing stars to feed his imagination. This shows that despite
Plath’s maternal hopes and dreams she is confined and mentally suffocating in her
role as mother.
● Her new child, too, is rendered suffering the consequences of her hopelessness.
● The title of the poem is significant here. Entitled “Child”, it is a poem about a
nameless child who has been brought into a dark, uncertain yet beautiful world.
● From we read in Plath’s journal entries (and also this poem) the relationship between
mother and child (son) here is troubled. “I felt very proud of Nicholas, and fond. It
had taken a night to be sure I liked him...” His namelessness in this poem could be
linked to her disenchantment with her life situation.
● Twist on an ode? (Praise poem) Or does it begin an ode and end a lament?
● Upon having split with her husband, who was in love with someone else, and now
living alone Plath is bitter and beleaguered with her lot.
● Contrast of dark and light (duality of happiness versus depression) in this poem is also
evident. *Colour comes to the fore in the first two stanzas. The child’s imaginative
world is filled with colour and vibrancy, the whiteness of the “April snowdrop” and
the “Indian pipe” gestures towards the purity of this child’s life which is, in the
beginning, unharmed by outside forces. However, the dark, dullness of the poet’s
mind renders this world unfulfilled and unvisited.