Poetry Month 7 – You’re

Today I’m sharing You’re by Sylvia Plath. You can read it here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/mar/13/poetry.sylviaplath

I’ve always loved this poem from Ariel. My favourite part has always been the image at the end – A clean slate, with your own face on. It’s exciting and fresh and Plath sounds so full of hope.

Since having Polly, I appreciate the rest of the poem more now, the thoughts in your head as you come to relate to the being and not-quite-being thing becoming in your belly.

I originally thought it was about an actual child, Clownlike, happiest on your hands, /
Feet to the stars like a baby playing, but Polly was always head down in utero, waiting to come out. The owl image Trawling your dark as owls do isn’t about a baby’s big eyes, it’s about the darkness of the uterus.

Right, like a well-done sum.
A clean slate, with your own face on.