How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
The midwife slapped your footsoles, (2)
Pretty much every movie with a baby in it probably has a scene like this one: baby is born and gets smacked into the world. No wonder the baby starts out screaming. The fact that Plath chooses a stereotypical image of first-moment baby-ness suggests that she's not going to be claiming that her baby is extra-special in any particular way. Nope. It's just a baby. A very loud baby.
Quote #2
your nakedness (5)
Once again, Plath resorts to fairly typical images of babies to describe her newborn. This time, though, the image gets turned on its head just a little bit – this newborn is, in fact, a statue, which is something slightly less dependent and helpless than other forms of babies.
Quote #3
All night your moth-breath
Flickers (10-11)
It's funny how one little baby can command so much attention, huh? But our speaker has moved from thinking about the ways that the baby interacts with her life to – well, letting that baby play a part in her life. Even though the baby is no longer screaming, our speaker is paying all sorts of attention to it!