Poetry Slam!: "Morning Song" by Sylvia Plath

This poem explores the alienation that the speaker feels after the birth of her baby. Read the text here.
15 words 867 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. midwife
    a woman skilled in aiding the delivery of babies
    Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
    The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
    Took its place among the elements.
  2. bald
    with no effort to conceal
    Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
    The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
    Took its place among the elements.
  3. element
    substance thought in ancient times to make up the universe
    Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
    The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
    Took its place among the elements.
  4. magnify
    increase in size, volume or significance
    Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
  5. drafty
    not airtight; exposed to currents of air
    In a drafty museum, your nakedness
    Shadows our safety.
  6. shadow
    cast a darkness over
    In a drafty museum, your nakedness
    Shadows our safety.
  7. blankly
    without expression
    We stand round blankly as walls.
  8. distill
    remove impurities from and increase the concentration of
    I’m no more your mother
    Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
    Effacement at the wind’s hand.
  9. reflect
    show an image of
    I’m no more your mother
    Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
    Effacement at the wind’s hand.
  10. effacement
    the act of withdrawing, eliminating, or making inconspicuous
    I’m no more your mother
    Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
    Effacement at the wind’s hand.
  11. flicker
    move back and forth very rapidly
    All night your moth-breath
    Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
    A far sea moves in my ear.
  12. stumble
    walk unsteadily
    One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
    In my Victorian nightgown.
  13. floral
    relating to or associated with flowers
    One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
    In my Victorian nightgown.
  14. dull
    emitting or reflecting very little light
    Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s. The window square

    Whitens and swallows its dull stars.
  15. vowel
    a speech sound made with the vocal tract open
    And now you try
    Your handful of notes;
    The clear vowels rise like balloons.
Created on Thu Oct 05 14:48:33 EDT 2017 (updated Mon Apr 09 09:20:36 EDT 2018)

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