Stillborn
These poems do not live: it's a sad diagnosis.
They grew their toes and fingers well enough,
Their little foreheads bulged with concentration.
If they missed out on walking about like people
It wasn't for any lack of mother-love.
O I cannot explain what happened to them!
They are proper in shape and number and every part.
They sit so nicely in the pickling fluid!
They smile and smile and smile at me.
And still the lungs won't fill and the heart won't start.
They are not pigs, they are not even fish,
Though they have a piggy and a fishy air -
It would be better if they were alive, and that's what they were.
But they are dead, and their mother near dead with distraction,
And they stupidly stare and do not speak of her.
Stillborn or stillbirth means the birth of a baby who is born without any signs of life at or after 20 weeks through out pregnancy. The baby may have died during pregnancy, labor or birth. Knowing what the title means, will immediately give you a better interpretation for when you read the poem.
We can imagine after going through a tragic loss like this you would feel shocked, angry, angry at yourself, empty as a person, alone, depressed, or all your hopes, dreams and future are gone.
-Sylvia had a miscarriage in her life time, now we see the connection between her life and the poem. It seems like she had all those related feelings.
-Plath grew up during the Great Depression and WW2. That gives her another 'problem' to daze about.
-diagnosis- determining by examination of a cause or a problem/situation.
-she is possible finding out bad news about her pregnancy
-The first line could mean 'this isn't a good poem, it's bad news,' by understanding this we can sense how the writer may have felt when she started to write the poem.
- In the rest of the stanza it seems that she had twin fetuses that were well on their way of forming but never had a chance to see life and that she loved them.
-The next stanza could mean she doesn't know what happened to them or she doesn't want to be reminded and write about it. The fetuses were growing and sitting inside her so well until something must have gone wrong. There are many possible reasons for a stillbirth to occur out of the blue.
- 'They are not pigs, they are not even fish, Though they have a piggy and a fishy air' -This is hard to interpret, it could mean ' they don't breathe in oxygen like pigs do, nor breathe in a liquid like fish because they are dead and alive only in her heart. They were once alive and she wished they still were.
- It seems she's distracted too much by them not being alive, that she's dying deep inside.
-The last line could mean nobody in the hospital knows what to say about the situation, so they just look sympathetic. Some people may hate sympathy but some people may think of it in a good way. In this situation, I would hate to see the sympathy, I would want to leave and be alone.
We knew from the beginning of the title, this would be a sad poem.
Krista & Cassie
Checked By: Chaz Gutmanis
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