Sylvia Plath's "Morning Song"?

Question

Hi

I'm reading into Sylvia Plath's "Morning Song" poem, and was just wanting to know the deeper meaning of the line:

"A far sea moves in my ear"

also

"The window square - Whitens and swallows its dull stars"

Have you read this poem? Do you mind giving me your thoughts? Thanks~

Answer 1

Sylvia Plath writes movingly. Her poetry is filled with metaphors and symbols. She is one of the few poets whose words cannot be analyzed without taking in the big picture because each line is so closely interwoven with the next. I'm giving you the entire poem, even though you may already have it, because I want you to absorb the context.

She's saying that from the first moment her daughter was born she was a complete individual who could exist on her own. Plath is completely psychologically detached as she dehumanizes the baby's breathing, describing it as "moth like." However, she is a mother -- a mother who listens carefully and can discriminate when the breathing turns into "...a far sea..." She knows when to get up, even though she is weary mentally, her breasts heavy with milk, she nurses her baby as night turns into day ("...swallows its dull stars..").
Take careful note of her line breaks. Plath was deliberate in her construction of this poem much as an architect might design the framework of a building. Don't miss the solid foundation or you will never see the beauty in her work.

Morning Song
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I'm no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.

All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

Answer 2

I think the far sea line means a large flow of sound moves in the ear as in a lively street or the jungle. The sounds are complex but flow in a soothing way, not only fun to hear but fun to feel. I think the window square line means that the sky is a whole window for the Earth to view, and opens and lets in stars that the whole world can see. No I've never heard this poem so I must be wrong about many things.

Answer 3

I doubt that there is deep meaning in the lines, just poecy.

"A far sea moves in my ear" probably just means that instead of hearing the baby cry she was hearing only the "sea-like" noise your blood makes as it rushes through the arteries or the hiss you hear when you hold a shell to your ear.

"The window square - whitens and swallows its dull stars" means that dawn has come, it is getting light outside and the less bright stars are obscured by daylight.