Balloons Lyrics
Guileless and clear,
Oval soul-animals,
Taking up half the space,
Moving and rubbing on the silk
Invisible air drifts,
Giving a shriek and pop
When attacked, then scooting to rest, barely trembling.
Yellow cathead, blue fish---
Such queer moons we live with
Instead of dead furniture!
Straw mats, white walls
And these traveling
Globes of thin air, red, green,
Delighting
The heart like wishes or free
Peacocks blessing
Old ground with a feather
Beaten in starry metals.
Your small
Brother is making
His balloon squeak like a cat.
Seeming to see
A funny pink world he might eat on the other side of it,
He bites,
Back, fat jug
Contemplating a world clear as water.
A red
Shred in his little fist.
About
In a rare, simple and predominantly positive poem, Plath offers a tribute to her two children. Through the imagery of balloons, the poem captures the innocent curiosity of children. However, there is a more sinister interpretation in that the the balloons could represent the fragility of happiness. One might almost speculate that Plath had a premonition of the future.There is greater irony still in that her baby boy suffered depression as an adult and committed suicide in midde age.
Structure
She uses her characteristic organisated structure of unrhymed five-line stanzas. Here there are six of them. The lines are of irregular length and the predominant colour imagery provides unity.
Imagery
Colours predominate; red, green, pink etc. This is a welcome change from the gloom of, say, the ‘Bee’ sequence of poems, where black and white are used extensively. The peacock’s feather is also colourful, though its symbolism complex. Plath also uses animal imagery to describe the balloons, linking them to the world of childhood.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 1.Morning Song
- 2.The Couriers
- 3.Sheep in Fog
- 5.Lady Lazarus
- 6.Tulips
- 7.Cut
- 8.Elm
- 11.Berck-Plage
- 12.Ariel
- 13.Death & Co.
- 14.Lesbos
- 16.Gulliver
- 17.Getting There
- 18.Medusa
- 21.Mary’s Song
- 23.The Rival
- 24.Daddy
- 25.You’re
- 26.Fever 103°
- 27.The Bee Meeting
- 29.Stings
- 30.The Swarm
- 31.Wintering
- 32.The Hanging Man
- 33.Little Fugue
- 34.Years
- 36.Totem
- 37.Paralytic
- 38.Balloons
- 39.Poppies in July
- 40.Kindness
- 41.Contusion
- 42.Edge
- 43.Words