Literary Devices in Two Poems

The tone and theme of the poems are expressed through the use of literary devices. Plath's alienated tone and her theme of the strange nature of a human infant are expressed through symbol, style, and voice, among other devices. Kinnell uses the same devices to express the joyous and playful tone of his poem, and the theme of familial happiness.

On first glance, it appears that with Plath's poem we will be entering joyous and playful territory as well. Our first image of the infant of the mother/poet is a pleasant surprise: "Love set you going like a fat gold watch" (Plath, line 1). We respond immediately to the image of a pudgy baby as a "fat gold watch," a very valuable object full of life and time. However, on second thought, there is something ominous about the poet's use of the image of a watch. After all, a watch runs down, runs out of time, stops. Is Plath giving us a hint of death in the image of a newborn baby?

But the next two lines seem innocent enough, with the midwife slapping the feet of the b

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a light and happy poem, and are surprised to find a portrait of a mother who seems to feel she has given birth to something of a monster. Is the mother the monster, or the baby? Moving from Plath's poem to Kinnell's, we move from what feels like a malevolent atmosphere to one of unbridled joy and celebration. Kinnell's poem includes both parents, making the reader aware that Plath's poem made no mention of the other parent, the father. There is a sense in Kinnell's poem that the world of father, mother and child is complete, while Plath's poem portrays not a family enjoying various forms of open and loving communication, but two strange and alienated creatures in a strange and alienating world. There is none of the dark irony in Kinnell's poem which we find throughout Plath's poem. When the narrator writes that he "can snore like a bullhorn" (Kinnell 1) he means that with no hidden meaning. There is a great, sweet embracing of life and love and sex and childhood and family in Kinnell's poem. The conceit of the poem---that the poet's son is drawn to the parents' love-making as a way for him to return to the source of his creation---is a potentially delicate one which the poet handles with nothing but happiness and acceptance.
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1660
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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