poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

form of a dramatic monologue, the speaker is addressing an implied listener, in this instant it is the mother addressing her unborn child.
there are 2 stanzas symbol of two stages in pregnancy?
9lines in each stanza - 9 months gestation period.
the title has to be placed infront of each phrase, the title is olso a contraction of the verb "you are" contraction links with pregnancy and the poet acknowledges her unborn childs existence.

This poem is clearly about a young child, who HAS been born. Every line she writes, is full of description, that follow on FROM the title 'you're'. She describes the childs moon-like face, big 'owl-like' eyes, and the way the child crawls around, preferring her hands to her feet. At the end of the poem, she says how the child has a clean slate, and says how she is unique, by saying, with your face- note how she says 'your' instead of you're, for the fist time in the poem.

The poem is a collection of homely similes that she uses to describe her unborn child in her womb.There is a childlike amusement in these similes, it seems that she is almost caressing her child and at the same time proud of her creation.In a loving manner she sketches the child's moon like face with big "owl like eyes".His posture in the womb is as his feet are in upward direction"to the stars" with thumbs down like that of dodo.The child is quite safe and enjoying the warmth and comfort of his cozy abode,

"Snug as a bud and at home"

He is almost cocooned in that place "like a spool".At number of places Plath compares the child with fish--"Gilled like a fish", "sprat","eel"--kept or canned in the womb which is also symbolised by "pickle jug" or "creel".In this cocoon the child is moving like "Mexican bean" producing "ripples" and at the same time growing as a "loaf".Despite such clear cut similes Plath insists that every thing is as "vague as fog" and to see the reality she has to wait long "from Fourth Of July to All Fool's Day" (nine months of pregnancy period) which seems as far off as Australia.Still she waits impatiently like a much awaited mail.Interestingly nothing will be written in that mail, it will be "a clean slate".But still it means the world to her which is again symbolised by Atlas with the world over his shoulders. It is clear that her child has already given her a lot of pleasure. Indeed she is very satisfied, “Right, like a well done sum”. At last she feels complete and has feeling of existing, of being alive.

(a little addition)



Comments about

You're

Sylvia Plath

9 lines in each stanza SHOW 9 months of pregnancy and the child birth



Clown like ……clumsy, a funny position/ pouster in which usually the clowns stand (head downwards and feet towards the sky) ,and content as you are on your own, in mother’s womb when mother can do nothing much for the baby .feet towards the sky ………….baby’s position is up side down before birth in placenta, and skull like moon ,clear and hairless .Gilled like a fish….not using your lungs .A common sense that if your feet are towards sky your thumbs(toes) are towards your head in a clumsy ,silly manner (dodo) is considered to be a clumsy bird. Wrapped in many folds of protective membranes like a cylinder. Trawling, nesting in dark like an owl .Here Plath uses the simile of trawl for umbilical cord to SHOW the contact of mother and child .Mute and quite as a fleshy white/yellow, turnip whose only contact with the earth is its main root(like umbilical cord in humans),from fourth of July to Fool’s day .O high riser ………ever growing ,round bread like(another day to day simile) baby.



Vague ,dreamy and enchanting like most waited mail FROM a far off land. Your top vertebra (Atlas) is bent like a prawn. You feel safe and at ease.



Now next lines describe the birth with the use of many similes surprisingly only of fish.

These all fish are wriggly and slippery and these similes SHOW the condition of newly born baby, squirmy and writhing and all slippery because of natural fluid on them.

You make ripples and are nervous and jumpy on your birth and ,but are a perfect sum or result .A clean slate….a record of past events and activities(from conception to birth).With your face forwards toward the world ………..children are born this way.

You're

by Sylvia Plath

Poet describing her unborn child in her womb in first stanza. Imagining what he/she would look like. "Gilled like a fish" "Clownlike"

Second stanza: starts off 'vague as fog' no idea of the reality of her child's appearance

i feel that in this poem sylvia plath has really show her true poetic ability and she used similes that fit the poem so well.

I personally think the poem is about her ex-husband, how he blocked her out and never listned to anything she had to say. In the seconda half...it refers to when he had left and she had no idea were he was . the last line of the poem means her husband has gone on with his life...new face..2 the world..and left his past with her,,hes the same person only a newbeginning

i think that this i a great poem and i really enjoyed reading t ay school i thiught it came from the heart and the poet ment every word

the "clean slate" symbolizes innocence, the baby is a new person and so has nothing written in its life thus far.

its quite an idiosncratic poem
it seems that she did in a certain order for a reason its telling us a message of how she wants us to remember her or even remember anyone whom passes away.