Key Facts

• Title: Morning Song
• Poet: Sylvia Plath
• Written Date: 1961 (after the birth of her daughter, Frieda)
• Publication Date: 1965, in the collection Ariel (published after her death)
• Form: Free verse lyric poem, divided into six tercets (three-line stanzas)
• Meter: Free verse, no fixed meter or rhythm (line lengths vary)
• Rhyme Scheme: No regular rhyme scheme (only occasional internal rhymes)
• Tone: Honest, intimate, confused, tender, and reflective
• Theme: Motherhood, the strange and mixed emotions of a new mother, distance and connection between mother and child, the wonder of new life
• Style: Simple, vivid imagery with comparisons (simile, metaphor) and sound effects (assonance, consonance)