In The Park

“The Double Image” by Anne Sexton (1958)

In this early confessional poem, Sexton addresses motherhood from the perspective of being a daughter and of being a mother to her four-year-old daughter; her account includes mentions of her depression and suicide attempts. In the final stanza, Sexton explains that she named her daughter Joyce, so her nickname could be Joy; although the situation is imperfect,  the last line of the poem carries the hope of connection: “I made you to find me” (Line 210). This idea of imperfection is also apparent in Harwood’s “In the Park”: The woman nurses her baby like the quintessential image of motherhood, the Madonna, but her feelings are not of love.

“Morning Song” by Sylvia Plath (1961)

In this autobiographical poem, Plath writes about the birth of her daughter Frieda. The mix of emotions, akin to those of “In the Park,” shows the complexity of becoming a mother and sustaining the life of a new person that was once inside of her. The poem shows the new mother in denial about her relationship to the newborn: “I’m no more your mother / Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow / Effacement at the wind’s hand” (Lines 7-9).