The maturation of a maternal bond in Morning SongWhat is the only difference between the emotions of a normal smiling new mother in the 1960s and those of Sylvia Plath when she wrote the his melancholy "Morning Song" immediately after the birth of his son? While most new moms pretended everything was fine, Plath posted her true feelings. Simply because society believed that all new mothers should be filled with immense joy after giving birth does not mean that they actually were. Plath had the courage to admit that she was confused, and her poem, "Morning Song," focuses on a woman's conflicting senses of apprehension and amazement at the birth of her child, which create both feelings of separation and affection that contend to determine the strength of her maternal bond. The first line of Plath's poem, "Love keeps you going like a big gold watch," shows the conflicting emotional forces in the mother's mind. The fact that she chooses the word "love" rather than a more carnal image such as "sex" demonstrates that the child was conceived from an intimate bond and creates a positive connection between mother and child. Using the simile, “a big gold watch,” changes the impact of this line. While the word "fat" alludes to the unwieldy nature of the child, the word "gold" represents the precious and treasured child, and the word "clock" evokes the seemingly never-ending task of raising a child. In her book The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir states that "a whole complex of economic and sentimental considerations makes the child seem like an obstacle or a jewel", but Plath's "fat gold watch" suggests that a newborn can be both things (509). The detachment caused by the mother's sense of apprehension is evident when she says to the baby: "New state... in the center of the paper... receiving the baby's cry suggests that she is touched by the baby." humanity, its unique individuality. In “Morning Song,” the mother’s bond with her child grows stronger as she tries to deny it. As she attempts to prove that she has no connection to this new life, the connections become undeniable as the child resists her. his "clear vowels". This "handful of notes" is all that is needed to dispel any pretense of indifference towards the child and the new life he has brought into the world.Works Citedde Beauvoir, Simone. The second sex. New York: McClelland and Stewart, 1953. Plath, Sylvia. "Morning song." Literature: reading, reacting, writing. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell, eds. 3rd ed. Orlando: Harcourt, 1997. 690.