Youre Edward Butscher says, At best, Sylvia had always been ambiguous about childbirth, and the addition

of another obstacle between her and her art had to have instigated many moments of intense, if hidden, despair. There was a life growing inside her, and that life threatened her own both literally and figuratively. But the event itself remained essential, as she well knew, as well as positive and wonderfully normal in its own right. Later, after Frieda and Nicholas were born, Sylvia would desire more and more childrenreasserting an earlier determination to breed a race of giants. As the babys kicks could not be entirely ignored, Sylvias imagination was poked into action. Youre is nothing more than a strand of associative responses to the reality of a foetus, but its art is certain and fascinating to contemplate. Addressed to the unborn babe, it begins with an exterior description that sees the bud as already born, Clownlike, happiest on your hands; but then it turns inward and remains a portrait of an unborn child: Feet to the stars, and moon-skulled,/ Gilled like a fish. Sylvias ambiguity about the foetus is evident in the odd mixture of the horrific and the whimsicalas in the connection between her own childs head and those moon-barren skulls glowing in a hospital jar. Dodo, spool, owl, turnip are the images in the first stanza and these lead to a touching climax of O high-riser, my little loafa play upon the old expression, one in the oven. Sylvia then returns to the idea of foetus as fishour travelled prawn This jar, however, has none of the terror of a specimen jar. It contains not something that is still and dead, but rather A creel of eels, all ripples. In the end, a mathematical image brings the playful sequence to an appropriate close: Right, like a well-done sum./ A clean slate, with your own face on. Youre is essentially a joyous celebration of the life process, that other extreme of natures order which helps make the reality of Medallion bearable. In it the poet gambols through her own field of talent without care for the fatal pits she knows are still there. Sylvia herself was generally happy as the birth approached, and that sense of joyful expectation was intensified when the publishing firm of William Heinemann accepted The Colossus for fall publication. At last she would have a book in print and could legitimately bear the title of poet. Book and child were dual symbols of important completions in the autobiography Sylvia Plath was carving from experience. They were also proof that she could maintain two supposedly antagonistic roles, those of mother and poet, and thereby create life as well as literature. And her husbands book, Lupercal, also appeared in England just before the birth. This too was taken as another sign of achievement and essential success. Not only did it appear, but it got excellent reviews and transformed Ted Hughes into a major figure in British poetry. The most underexplored dilemma of contemporary feminism is the womans personal identity crisis, the recognition that the self, bound as it is by the facts of the world may remain inarticulate, lost. There is no definte word of baby in the poem, however it becomes obvious to the reader. It is talking about an unborn baby, O high-riser, my little loaf implies the baby is growing inside her as bread grows in an oven. There is a clever change of the saying snug as a bug which has been transformed to snug as a bud. A creel of eels is describing the baby wriggling inside her and jumpy as a mexican bean. The womb is a pickle jar. The baby is offten reffered to as an equatic creature, eels, prawn and fish. Plath compares its precence to global space, farther off than Australia. A clean slate is showing the baby will be new and be its own person. Plaths travelled prawn must stay in its pickle jar, snug as a bud until it is ready to leave.Thumbs-down on the dodos mode 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 symbolic of two stages in pregnancy, 9 lines in each stanza - 9 months gestation period. The title has to be placed in front of each phrase, the title is also a contraction of the verb you are contraction links with pregnancy and the poet acknowledges her unborn childs existence. The 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 youre. 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 youre, 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 childs 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 Fools 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. The clean slate symbolizes innocence, the baby is a new person and so has nothing written in its life so far. Here Plath gives vent to her fine feelings of love for a child. She sought a desperate refuge in love. It is also an expression of her tender desire to be a loving mother. She likes to shower love but her obsessions, ambivalence and neurotic discards kept her moving from pillar to post in her search for real love. In fact, the love for her parents, her husband and her children fails to find right direction and she starts flirting with the death wish----the only way left out. However, Youre is an escape from the death wish. It is a poem that depicts Plath as a mother and nothing but a mother. Issues of motherhood and pregnancy are evident in some of Plath's poems, including 'Metaphors', 'You're', and 'Morning Song'. In Metaphors', Plath conveys an attitude of ambivalence towards pregnancy. The description of the foetus as newly-minted money' implies that the persona thinks of it as something that is valuable and fresh. Moreover, the overall tone of the poem is humorous, with funny images such as [a] melon strolling on two tendrils', which suggest that the persona is good-naturedly making fun of the disproportionate shape of pregnant women. Despite the positive tone and images, the image of a ponderous house' seems to convey an ambivalent attitude towards pregnancy. A house' implies warmth and protection for the fetus living' inside the womb. However, ponderous' seems to imply that the mother is laboring heavily to provide this warmth and protection. This oxymoron seems to convey that the persona wants to protect and care for her child, but she is also burdened by it. The ambiguity of the first sentence may also convey an ambivalent attitude towards pregnancy. I'm a riddle in nine syllables' can mean, literally, that the poem is a riddle with each line having nine syllables. However, nine syllables' might refer to the nine months of gestation and the riddle' might be the identity of the child within the mother. This can be interpreted in two ways. It could be that the mother is eagerly anticipating the answer', that is, the birth of the child. Alternatively, the comparison of the pregnant mother to a riddle' might show that the persona is afraid of the unknown - she does not know what her child will be like. Also, it seems that pregnancy itself is terrifying to the persona. Boarded the train there's no getting off' seems to convey a sense of inevitability - the child will be born no matter what the persona does, and it seems that her inability to control the process of childbirth is terrifying her. In conclusion, the persona in Metaphors' seems to have mixed feelings towards pregnancy - on one hand, she loves and cherishes the unborn child, but on the other, she is burdened by it and terrified by the inevitability of pregnancy. In comparison, You're' seems to convey a more positive attitude towards pregnancy. There is a tone of jubilation, as conveyed through the sentence A common-sense / Thumbs-down on the dodo's mode'. It is as if the persona is celebrating the innate superiority of the human baby and its sophisticated structure as compared to the extinct dodo. The persona also feels warmth and love towards the baby. She calls it [her] little loaf', which conveys feeling of warmth, like a freshly baked loaf. Despite the positive tone, the persona seems to have mixed feelings towards the fetus. She describes it as moon-skulled', quite an ambiguous phrase. Moon-skulled' might refer to the color and shape of the fetus's head. However, moon' usually has negative connotations in Plath's poetry, whereas skull' carries implications of death. The association of the fetus with something as negative as death implies that the persona has negative feelings towards it. The persona also describes the fetus [trawling its] dark as owls do'. It might just be a description of how the fetus swims through the darkness of the womb. However, another interpretation of this might be that the persona sees the baby as surrounded by darkness. She is again associating the fetus with negative images. Furthermore, the persona compares the fetus to owls'. This comparison is ambiguous - it might be just a physical comparison - the fetus's face is like an owl's, pale and white. However, it is also possible that the persona sees the fetus as a predator. Perhaps she feels that the fetus is threatening in some way. On the whole, the mixture of feelings - jubilation and warmth and fear - signifies that the persona has an ambivalent attitude towards pregnancy.