Candlestick and Mary's Song) focuses on the relationship between mother and child, the emotions

dealt with in each poem vary quite incredibly. Each poem appears differently on the page: You're

and By Candlelight are written in nine-line stanzas, the two poems having two and four respectively,

while Morning song, Nick and the Candlestick and Mary's Song consist of six, fourteen and seven

stanzas, each of three lines. It thus appears that Plath is using threes and sevens quite prolifically, as

every stanza is either three or nine lines long (9 = 3²) and multiples of seven occur twice in the total

number of stanzas in each poem. Three and seven both seem to have a particular significance in life.

There are triunes in religion, (Father, Son, Holy Spirit,) science (energy, matter, ether,) spiritualism

(mind, body, spirit,) and psychiatry (superconscious, conscious, subconscious) to name but a few,

while nine is the number of months in a human pregnancy (divided into three trimesters). Sevens

also occur frequently: there are seven cardinal virtues; seven deadly sins; seven ages of man; seven

days in a week and seven seals in the b

implies that both the foetus and mother are enjoying themselves, as well as simply being nine months

roses,/ With soft rugs". She goes on to glorify her child at the end of the poem, saying "You are the

womb" creates images of a miner trapped below ground, which could be the mother trying to

The narrator's seemingly ambivalent attitude continues into Morning Song. The tone is both

not permitted by traditional phrases, or due to a fear of using hackneyed expressions, as they tend to

hedgehog," "I rock you like a boat",) and Nick and the Candlestick ("wrap me, raggy shawls".) It is

"Vague as fog and looked for like mail", while "Farther off than Australia" implies that she believes

and that there would be nothing that she could do about it even if she was unsatisfied.

events of the second world war ("the cicatrix of Poland, burnt out/ Germany".) Alongside the

expectant mother) talking to her foetus, and she believes that it is enjoying itself: "You're/

Some common words found in the essay are:
Morning Song, Mary's Song, Candle/ Gulps, Holy Spirit, Nick Candlestick, You're/ Clownlike, Fools' Day, Farther Australia, Germany Alongside, Fools' Day/, mary's song, nick candlestick, morning song, candlestick mary's song, raggy shawls, child mother, wrap raggy, balled hedgehog, candlestick mary's, golden child, nick candlestick mary's, wrap raggy shawls, child world kill, seen earlier, nick candlestick wrap,
Approximate Word count = 1925
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)